


Memoirs of an Amnesiac

by LottieHolmes



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: Amnesia, F/M, Ghosts, Mystery, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-08 10:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1938048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieHolmes/pseuds/LottieHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 23 year old Mai Taniyama develops amnesia as a result of a car accident and returns to her 17 year old self. In the process of recovery she discovers her past relationship with Naru that everyone is trying to keep from her. NaruxMai</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Accident

**Finding you:**

**Chapter 1:**

* * *

The first of May should have not been a significant day of Mai Taniyama. For the past two years, all of the first of Mays were filled with her usual monotonous working hours, trapped in a cubicle in the crowded office of a company.

This year, a rogue taxi on her way to work broke the pattern.

Mai slowly stirred, fighting against the pain in her head and the dry ache in her throat and lungs. Her eyelids fluttered and she eventually managed to keep her eyes open long enough to register her surroundings.

The white walls surrounding her were not her bedroom or even the infirmary at school. She frowned. Was she in a hospital?

A glance down at her hideously patterned crinkly nightgown confirmed that.

She reached up and gingerly touched her forehead which seemed to be the epicentre of the pain in her head.

"Ow," she moaned out loud and removed her fingers from what felt like a gauze pad on her head.

Mai looked around at her hospital room. There was no IV drip attached to her so she couldn't have been unconscious for too long. She pushed back the covers and slowly sat up being careful not to make any sudden movements that would aggravate her aching head. Once she had achieved that she swung her legs round. She wiggled her toes to restore blood flow before she made any attempt to stand.

The door to her room was pushed open and she was surprised to see a breathless ponytailed monk striding in.

"Bou-san!"

"Jou-chan!" he wailed. "I came rushing here as soon as the hospital contacted me."

"Why would they contact you? You aren't my emergency contact," Mai queried, fully aware that her emergency contact was the teacher that she had lived with.

Bou-san raised his eyebrows, but changed the subject.

"The doctor prescribed you some painkillers so you can leave now," he informed her with a smile. "I'll get your clothes for you."

Now that her brain was functioning past the pain, the most obvious question came to Mai.

"Why am I here?"

The monk paused on his way to the closet in the corner. "Shouldn't you know more than me? All I know is that you got hit by a car this morning."

Mai screwed up her face as she though back to the morning. It was a school day so she had risen early and met Keiko and Michiru on the way to school. That part she remembered but she didn't remember anything about a car.

"If you say so," she said doubtfully. "What's the time?"

"Half past four," he answered as he rifled through the closet.

That meant she was late for work. Naru was not going to be happy that he was not getting his tea.

"Can you call SPR to say that I can't come in for a few days due to the accident?" she requested, not expecting Bou-san's reaction.

He froze and turned round. "What!?"

Mai blinked in surprise. Surely you were supposed to inform your workplace of when you weren't able to come in to work.

"Is there something wrong?"

Bou-san placed a pile of clothes at the end of her bed and sat down next to her.

"Jou-chan, you don't work for SPR anymore."

"I don't...?

She didn't have any recollection of handing in her resignation or being fired so this was strange.

The monk frowned at her. "Jou-chan, how old are you?"

"Eh? 17..."

He signed. "No, you're 23."

"But I go to high school, I was on my way there this morning," Mai protested. She had definitely not aged 6 years whilst she had been unconscious and the accident had happened in the morning.

Wordlessly the monk passed her the stack of her clothes and she gasped. It wasn't her school uniform, a tight black skirt and white blouse didn't come close.

"I think we need to speak with a doctor..." he stated the obvious.

For the better or the worse Ayako Matsuzaki turned up to examine Mai. A familiar face was calming to Mai, but seeing how the priestess' appearance had changed was a reminder that something was not right with her mind.

Ayako poked and prodded her and shine a light in her eyes for an entire hour whilst a frowning monk watched.

"I should arrange for an MRI scan, but it's evident that the head trauma from the accident caused you to lose some memories," she summarised and reached out to give Mai's hand a comforting squeeze. "It appears that you have lost 6 years of your life which will be very disorientating at first."

"How can I get my memory back?" Mai asked worriedly. 6 years was a long time to her.

"I would suggest reacquainting yourself with your normal life- you will have to take time off work, Mai. Your job is too demanding for a 17 year old," Ayako told her with a serious tone to her voice. "Houshou and I will help you as much as we can so please don't dwell on it too much."

"...Are you two on first name terms now?"

Bou-san patted her on the arm as he couldn't touch her head. "Try not to freak out too much Jou-chan, a lot has happened since you were 17- you even dat-"

"Technology has advanced greatly as well," the redhead cut the monk off suddenly. "You should check out your phone."

Something flat and black was passed to her. She turned it over and felt it over. The phone she owned at 17 was a brick that she only used in emergencies.

"Where are the buttons?"

The car journey home was disorientating due to the complete change in landscape and shops. The route was familiar as she had been told that she still lived in the same apartment so she knew that her favourite Dorayaki shop on the corner was now an Okonomiyaki restaurant and the Takoyaki stand had disappeared. She pouted before pulling down her skirt.

Did she really wear this tight short skirt every day and work in an office?

"Bou-san, why don't I work for SPR anymore?" she asked suddenly. "Did Naru return to England again permanently?"

The monk nervously scratched his neck. "No.. he is still here with Lin-san."

"Why don't I still there then?" she demanded, guessing that he was hiding something.

"You and Naru had a parting of ways."

"Did he finally fire me then?"

She had always had a tendency to rub up the wrong way, but he had never threatened to fire her. Maybe she had done something unforgivable.

"Jou-chan, let's leave Naru to last. He probably won't trigger anything anyway because you haven't seen him for a few years," Bou-san suggested carefully. The saga of Mai and Naru's strange relationship was going be a little too much for a 17 year old Mai. "John is currently in Japan so we can see him. Oh, and we can arrange a visit to the television studio to visit your best friend. Guess who it is?"

As he predicted, this distracted Mai completely.

"I-I'm best friends with Masako Hara!?" Mai screamed giving the driver of the taxi a fright.

The monk placed her hand on her shoulder. "I think we won't give you anymore revelations for today. As for you and Hara-san, she really is your best friend- none of us quite know why, but you two are definitely friends. She is one of the contacts in your phone book."

Mai squinted at her mobile phone and located the power button and successfully navigated her way to her contacts. "Masako-chan" was the first on this list as her most used contact.

"No way."

"Her snobbish personality is still the same as ever though," he warned. "Ayako and I will arrange for a meet up tomorrow so don't worry too much. Just go to sleep when you get home."

That night Mai had a strange cacophony of dreams ranging from being chased by an axe wielding ghost through a dilapidated mansion to holding hands with her narcissistic former boss.

She woke up scratching her head in the only place where it didn't hurt. Had those dreams been memories, future events that had not yet occurred or completely random, she asked herself. The monk had promised to call her when he had arranged for everyone to get together so she occupied herself whilst she was waiting by familiarising herself with the contents of her wardrobe and apartment.

Fashion had really changed since she was 17, Mai reflected. Unlike the looser styles fashion she had been accustomed to, everything was tight fitting and short. She picked out the longest skirt she could find which came to just above the knee and she resolved to ask Ayako or any female that she was close to as to why all her skirts were so short. Admittedly she had favoured skirts when she was younger but they were more practical than the ones she found in her wardrobe now.

At 10 o'clock her phone began to emit some incomprehensible song and she tapped the screen gingerly to receive the call.

"Jou-chan, I've arranged to meet Ayako, John, Hara-san and Yasuhara today in a cafe at lunchtime- all that Hara-san and Yasuhara can spare is their lunch breaks," Bou-san said. "I'll pick you up."

* * *

The amnesiac glanced around the table at everyone. Masako looked prim in a kimono as usual and her hair was perfectly straight, but she was slightly taller and her eyes were warmer and she had smiled briefly at Mai, causing the brunette to goggle. John and Yasuhara looked the same as when she had last seen them, except that Yasuhara was dressed smartly and had changed his style of glasses.

"Where do you work, Yasuhara-san?" she enquired once they had advanced past questions about her amnesia.

Yasuhara, who had been smiling happily and joking, froze. "In an office, I just do standard stuff like filing."

Mai noted his reaction but didn't say anything. "Apparently I work in an office of a shipping company full time now, I can't believe it. When did my life get so boring?" she said and stabbed and piece of meat.

Yasuhara flinched and Masako took up the conversation.

"Mai, if you would like to know anything about your past, please ask and I can always give you another tour of the television studio- you rather liked it last time."

"Invite me too," Ayako interjected. "The new series of my favourite drama is being filmed at the same studios as your show and the main character is very good looking."

"I believe I only invited Mai," Masako retorted.

"If you're going to invite the old lady, invite me too; I need to warn this actor about a certain old lady."

Mai beamed, some things had definitely not changed over 6 years. She was so intent on watching the familiar disagreement play out in front of her that she didn't notice a tall figure dressed in black run past her to the queue at the counter.

She only became aware of this familiar person when he called out to Yasuhara.

"Don't be late back to the office, you have 15 minutes left of your lunch break," Lin said, not expecting a table full of SPR irregulars to turn and glared at him or to see a certain brunette female. "Mai-san?"

Mai glanced at Lin, he was still dressed the same in black trousers and a white shirt, however he looked more stressed and was holding a polystyrene cup of tea in one hand.

"Hello, Lin-san," she smiled and then became aware of the expressions on everyone else's faces. "Is there something I'm missing?"

"Mai-chan has got amnesia from a car accident," Yasuhara explained to Lin. "She is missing 6 years of memories."

He stood up and pushed his chair in. "I've got to get back to the office."

On the way back to the SPR office Yasuhara explained everything to the omnouji.

"They haven't told her anything about Naru yet, but they can't avoid it forever," he sighed.

"Should we not mention it to him?" Lin wondered aloud. "However he will eventually find out, he does regularly talk to Brown-san and Madoka might let it slip once she finds out from everyone else."

They walked up the bustling street in Shibuya that led to the eponymous Shibuya Physic Research in a thoughtful silence. Once they were outside the building Yasuhara paused.

"I think we should tell him and end the stalemate between them."

"I agree, ever since that day 2 years ago he has become increasingly irritable," Lin agreed. "He always sends me out halfway to Shibuya to get him tea since he can't have hers."

"It's to everyone's benefit: I get disciplined less frequently, you don't get sent out for tea, Mai-chan gets her memory back and Naru... might return to how he was before," Yasuhara concluded with a confident grin. "Let's go."

* * *

Oliver Davis stared at the clock on the wall in irritation. Yasuhara's lunch break had ended 3 minutes ago and Lin was taking extra long bringing him his tea. He debated ringing both of them, but that was too petty even for him.

He sighed out loud and put down the book he had been trying to read. Recently his concentration was getting worse and it was hard to maintain an interest in something for more than 10 minutes. When his concentration drifted, his thoughts ended up going towards a certain female physic with shining brown eyes- he frowned he had done it again, he was thinking about Mai.

It seems that the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" did not apply in his case, it was more "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

He hadn't seen Mai in 2 years, but he could still remember everything in clear detail from their first meeting to their last.

The door to the main office opened and he knew exactly who had arrived based on the footsteps.

"You are both late. Lin, tea," he ordered, expecting only Lin to enter his office. Instead Yasuhara joined him which was unusual as the man preferred to stay out of his way.

"What do you want, Yasuhara?" Naru demanded with a scowl and picked up his book again.

"I met with Mai-chan at lunch today," he began and shivered when he received a cold glare. "She was in a car accident and has amnesia."

Naru dropped his book and used the time it took to pick it up to reassemble his frantic thoughts. Mai could not have been injured too badly if she was meeting with Yasuhara so he didn't have to draw parallels with the fate of his twin.

"Retrograde?" he enquired calmly.

"Yes, she has no memories prior to the age of 17."

Naru raised an eyebrow thoughtfully and noticed how his assistants were observing him closely.

"Do you want me to rush to her or something?"

Both shook their heads.

"Just so you know, they're not planning to tell Mai anything about you," Yasuhara said, very sure that this would be the thing to rile Naru up. "She expressed an interest in visiting SPR, however everyone talked her out of it."

Yasuhara knew that he had got it right when Naru's eyes tightened fractionally and his hands twitched.

"Is that so? They cannot keep her away forever," he said. "Get back to work. Lin, tea."


	2. Mochi

****

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 2:**

"Not much of a reaction there then," Yasuhara murmured once they had left Naru's office.

The omnouji shook his head. "I have known him for a long time; his reaction to emotional matters, especially when in the company of others is minimal. He should be planning something by now."

As Lin predicted Naru had recovered from the shock and was working out a way to make contact with Mai.

The priestess and monk obviously did not want him anywhere near her after what happened two years ago. In the past two years, Masako Hara had been the one to give him updates on Mai's activities and told him whenever she ended up with a injury. Several years ago she had become a supporter of his relationship with Mai and had apologised for blackmailing him.

He dialled her number and she picked up after the first ring.

"Naru? I have to go on set in give minutes," she informed him tartly.

"I know about Mai's amnesia," he stated simply.

"How? I supposed Yasuhara blabbed. What do you want?"

"I want to see her," he blurted out, sounding too needy for his liking.

There was an intake of breath over the line before she answered.

"If you had swallowed your pride and apologised you would not be in this situation," she reminded him. "Mai and I have arranged a girls' day out on my next day off, we might visit SPR."

"Thank you, Hara-san."

"Are you going to tell her everything?" she asked anxiously. "That you two dated and were even engaged."

"No, that would overburden her and she would feel guilty about forgetting. I have my own plan regarding Mai."

"Upset her and I will not supply you with photos or information ever again," she threatened, bringing back memories of her blackmailing days, but this time it was out of concern for Mai's well being. Two years ago Mai had been extremely upset and angry at Naru and it had taken her a month for her to return to her cheerful self. A repeat was not something that she wanted to see."

3 days later:

"Are you sure it's fine to visit the office? Naru never liked people hanging around," Mai asked worriedly as they walked up the stairs of a certain building in Shibuya.

"Stop fretting Mai and next time take the lift, you know I don't like the stairs," Masako griped before backtracking. "Of course, you don't remember, in addition to the Gellerini case I got pushed down stairwells three more times."

Mai nodded and silently wondered why she did not work for SPR anymore. Whenever she had come close to broaching the subject everyone clammed up. She must have done something really bad to get fired by Naru.

Masako knocked on the frosted glass of the door to the SPR office and entered without bothering to wait for a reply. Hesitantly Mai followed her in and looked around.

Unlike everyone and everything, the main office had not changed one bit. The layout of the furniture was still the same. Her desk was still there without a layer of dust and even her pencil pot was on her former desk. Yasuhara was sitting at the other desk and raised an eyebrow at their entrance.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked in a low tone.

The medium sat herself down gracefully on one of the sofas. Mai did the same, noting that the sofa was the same as the one she remembered. It was so like Naru not to consider updating decor.

"Visiting," Masako answered vaguely. "I thought I would show Mai how some things have not changed."

A strange variety of facial expressions were shared between then before Yasuhara relented.

"You're already here now, but if this turns out badly, it's your fault, Hara," he warned mysteriously.

Mai frowned. Everyone was acting strange around her and it was not helping her orientate herself into normal life at all. Even after a few days she felt like she was someone impersonating the 23 year old Mai Taniyama.

"Excuse me, is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Not at all," the office worker replied a little too quickly. "Would you like some tea? I think there are some snacks around here somewhere."

There was the sound of a door opening behind Mai and she tensed up before turning to see Lin standing behind her, looking very surprised to see her.

"Hello Mai-san, Hara-san. Why are you two here?"

Masako repeated what she had told Yasuhara and Mai invited Lin to sit with them. Yasuhara retrieved a box of sakura mochi from a drawer in his desk and made tea for everyone.

"Mai-san, how are you feeling?" Lin asked concernedly due to the fact that was being unusually quiet.

"I'm improving," she replied briefly and moved on. "How are you? Have you asked out Madoka-san yet?"

Yasuhara let out a guffaw and even Masako smiled as Lin flushed and averted his eyes.

"...Yes."

Mai clapped her hands happily. "That's wonderful. What about you, Yasuhara?"

Like he had always been so fond of doing, the flirt pushed his glasses up his nose so that the lenses glinted.

"I've had a few girlfriends, but now I've moved onto John..."

The amnesiac's eyes widened whilst Masako and Lin rolled sighed, well accustomed to Yasuhara coming out with similar outrageous claims.

"B-But he's a priest!"

"He's quitting the priesthood for me," Yasuhara swooned onto the sofa before returning to normal. "I forgot how fun you were to tease when you were younger."

"It was a just a joke," Mai sighed in relief. "You had me worried that you had seduced John."

The conversation continued on similar lines with Yasuhara's claims becoming increasingly ridiculous until his claim regarding Dendrophilia caused Mai to giggle a little too loud and brought the manager of SPR out his office.

"How many times do I have to say that this is not a cafe?" he intoned and glared at them before whirling back to return to his sanctum.

Mai assumed that he had not registered her presence as she had her back to him and had only heard his voice, but he added a very familiar order onto the end of his gripe.

"Mai, tea."

"I don't work for you!" she protested and stood up.

He turned to face her. "Amnesia does not exactly prevent you from making tea. On the contrary, it might improve your amnesia- it is a familiar routine."

Five minutes later Mai was boiling water in the kitchenette of SPR where she had spent most of her working hours as a teenager. Naru hadn't even said hello to her, however manners had never quite been his area. That had obviously not changed and neither had his fashion sense, he was still in black trousers and a shirt and was annoying good looking, although his face was slightly less rounded.

Once she had prepared the tea she poured out three cups for her acquaintances, one for herself and one for Naru. She left the other cups in the kitchenette as Naru had always hated it when she served him last and he ended up with lukewarm tea.

She walked into his office and deposited the cup on the edge of his desk where he was busy writing. He lifted his head up to glance at her.

"Thank you, Mai," he said with a soft smile that reached his blue eyes.

Mai's response was to freeze. Her former boss smirked at her.

"Did you just say "thank you"!?"

His smirk grew wider. "You persuaded me to start saying it. It was something about being kinder to your gi- employees."

"I did?" How had she managed that one?

"You will have to work that one out for yourself, Mai," he answered cryptically and took a delicate sip of tea. "If you like, you can work here again."

She paused. It would be advantageous to work at SPR again as she wouldn't be able to do her normal job until she got her memory back which clearly was not going to happen anytime soon. Also she had nearly had a heart attack when she had seen how the price of her rent had risen in six years so it would be useful and it might bring her memory back. On the negative side, her acquaintances had been acting strange whenever SPR was mentioned and she was still in the dark about why she no longer worked for Naru.

"Why did I stop working here?" she asked instead of replying to his job offer.

He looked her straight in the eyes "You will have to remember that for yourself."

"Did you fire me?"

Naru shot her a warning look. "Mai..."

"Fine. I will think about it."

He flashed her a smile. "I'll be waiting."

Mai raised an eyebrow and left the room, closing the door behind her. Naru had seemed to be the same, but he was smiling frequently which was strange to see. She picked up the other teacups and joined her friends.

"Naru offered me a job and he smiled a lot," she blurted out the moment she sat down. Cue surprised looks all around and a three-way eye conversation, as she predicted. Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm taking the offer unless any of you have something to tell me."

Yasuhara spoke up first. "I have nothing against working with you again and it will integrate you into your new life as a 23 year old. Just don't mess with my filing system."

"Of course not- wait, does that mean you messed with  _my_  filing system?"

Lin jumped in before an argument over filing could start.

"I would be happy if you returned to working here. It's a lot quieter without you here and I get sent out for tea every half an hour."

Mai nodded understandingly. It was bad enough making tea every half an hour, let alone having to go out and purchase it.

"It should be fine for you to work here," Masako told her. "There is no animosity against you here."

The amnesiac stared at her, not following what she was saying, but they all seemed to approve and she needed something to do and a job so she strode back into Naru's office.

"I'll take it."

"It will be pleasant working with you again, Mai," her new boss said with a glint in his eyes.

Unknown to Mai there was a hushed conversation in the main office.

"Hara, you told Naru that you and Mai were coming here," Yasuhara hissed. "He wasn't surprised at all to see her."

"Yes, I did. I am tired of watching them, waiting for the other to apologise. I do not think there is anything to worry about. He is acting fairly normal and he seems to be happy to see her again," Masako managed to maintain a ladylike demeanour whilst whispering frantically.

"Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san will not be happy when they find out," Lin pointed out.

"Neither will Mai when she gets her memory back."

* * *

 

**A/N: I tried Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Mochi in Japan and it tasted like I was eating a tree, but it is popular in Japan.**

**If anyone is curious as to what Dendrophilia is, just don't look it up on google images. If you are in the company of someone else I would suggest not looking it up full stop. The hint is trees.**


	3. Photos

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 3:**

"Mai, tea."

"In a minute," Mai called out and put the photo album that she was looking through aside.

Lin had not been exaggerating about being summoned for tea every half an hour. Six years ago, it had been every hour so it felt like all she did was boil the kittle. Maybe Naru had developed a caffeine addiction, she theorised as she waited for the water to reach the right temperature. He did always look marginally happier at the sight of her carrying a tea tray. Naturally the alternative explanation that he was happy to see  _her_ did not come to mind.

Once she had delivered the tea for the fifth time that morning she resumed looking through one of the photo albums that she had brought with her from her apartment. It was dated four years ago and seemed to be SPR themed as all the employees and Naru appeared in photos, but there were several blank spaces where there should be photos.

She walked over to Yasuhara's desk and showed him.

"Do you know what the missing photos were of?" she asked.

Her co worker took his time in answering. "We started a tradition of celebrating at a restaurant after each case was solved- that's where all of these photos were taken," he pointed at one. "That was the ramen place we went to after a simple case and this one is the sushi bar we went to after a really complex case- Naru was in a good mood after solving that one so we got all you can eat."

"Whose idea was it?"

"Yours, I think and we all agreed so Naru gave in eventually," he explained. "You always took photos as you wanted to document your family."

Mai smiled. Even at an older age she still thought of SPR as her family. However she still didn't have an answer about the missing photos so she pressed on.

"What do you think the missing photos could be off."

Yasuhara shrugged. "You may have accidently stuck in a duplicate and then removed it or they were blurred photos."

Mai was not convinced as there was what looked like a coffee spill across a page with a missing photo and the flow of the stain was ruined by a white rectangle where a photo should have been, indicating that the photos had been there for a while before they had been removed. Yet again something was being hidden from her and asking questions did not seem to do anything so she resolved to do some investigating.

On her way back to her desk her boss called out her name and the word "tea" did not follow.

"Mai."

She poked her head into his office to find him standing by the bookshelf looking thoughtful instead of sitting at his desk and glaring at her.

"Yes? You can't want more tea already..." Mai trailed off as she caught sight of the untouched cup on his desk.

"Bring me case file #26," he ordered.

Mai withdrew her head and frowned at the filing cabinets. Yasuhara had messed with her system completely, using numbers instead of sorting them alphabetically. However, to be fair she had some up with strange names for the cases, making it hard for anyone other than her to locate a case file.

She located #26 and drew out the file carefully and checked the date. The case had occurred when she was 18. She was about to open it when Naru interrupted her.

"I asked you to bring it not read it, Mai."

"Coming!" she shouted back and returned to the office where the layout of chairs had changed and a projector had been switched on.

Naru took the file from her and opened it to pull out a disk.

"What's that?"

She couldn't recall there being any disks kept in case records and any footage recorded on a case was normally deleted to save space.

"We started to film you once we realised that a lot of your unconscious actions were providing clues relating to the case," Naru explained and placed the disk into his laptop which was connected to the projector. "Sit down."

Mai sat down at one of the chairs that had been repositioned opposite the projector screen and Naru sat in the one next to her once he had pressed play.

"Do I do anything embarrassing?" she asked hesitantly. She always hated watching herself and considering the amount of times Naru or another member of SPR made a joke at her expense, it was going to be embarrassing to watch.

Naru's smirk was so wide that she could make it out in the dim light of his office which confirmed her suspicions.

"Nothing more than the usual," he said. "Just watch it."

The video started with someone shakily filming a house which looked like it was once a mansion but the roof had fallen in and there was ivy everywhere. A black figure holding a large sheet of paper that Mai took to be a floor plan, moved into view.

"We will be using the only intact room as a base," Naru said as he frowned over the floor plan."Lin and Mai will deliver the cameras to the base before I decide where to put them.."

"I was not expecting this place to be so dilapidated," Lin's voice off camera could be heard. "We need to make sure that the cameras do not get damaged by any rain- the weather forecast said it would rain tomorrow."

"That is a point," Naru conceded. "Mai, I gave you an order."

Mai stiffened as her 18 year old self stomped across the view of the camera and back across holding a camera a few seconds later.

"Should I give a summary of the case for the video, Naru-chan?" Bou-san's voice offered.

The camera was shaking so Mai inferred that it was the monk that was filming.

"Well, I'm not going to," Naru said simply and disappeared out of view.

"Suit yourself," Bou-san muttered. "Our client is a woman named Mitsuki Kaburugi who inherited this house from a distant relative. Apparently this area is quite popular with property developers so she wants to sell it, but she stayed a night here and heard laughter, tapping sounds and a wall nearly fell on top of her. She wants us to exorcise the ghosts so she can sell it with peace of mind."

The video flickered and the picture changed to show a familiar set of television screens and Lin typing on his laptop. Mai took it to be that the base had been set up. She squinted at a small window to the side of the bank of screen, which was showing a dark sky so she knew that there had been a significant time jump from the afternoon to evening.

"It's 11:05 and there's been a sudden drop in temperature in the west wing," Yasuhara's voice said. "Big boss, Bou-san and the priestess have gone to check it out. None of the cameras are showing anything unusual, however due to the bad weather we couldn't place them where we wanted."

Yasuhara jumped, causing the camera to shake as one of the screens showed Naru, the monk and priestess walking past.

"Oh, there goes big boss. Mai-chan, don't you think he looks good in that- she isn't here."

Lin pulled off his headphones and jumped up. "Naru told me to stay here and keep an eye on her and now she is gone. Brown-san, come with me," the omnouji instructed.

There was a rustling sound off camera which Mai took to be John moving around.

"I've been watching the feed all this time and I haven't seen her at all..." Yasuhara's voice said worriedly. "There haven't been any temperature drops either aside from the one Naru is investigating."

Lin looked thoughtful. "There was a part that we could not place anything at because there was no cover for the cameras or sensors, she must be there and she knows where the cameras are so she would not show up."

"I will get the floor plan," Masako's voice could be heard along with more rummaging noises.

The camera cut again and the scene changed again and Mai watched herself being disciplined by Naru. She frowned as she saw that her hair was wet and plastered to her face and her clothes had become very tight fitting.

"That was one of the most stupidest things you have done, Mai. What were you thinking? If you have a feeling about something, tell me or take someone like Lin or John with you. Don't go off by yourself," Naru warned with the most ferocious glared that Mai had ever seen him use.

The Mai Taniyama on screen blinked a lot before muttering. "...I'm sorry."

Once she had apologised, Naru's tone and posture seemed to soften.

"Do it again and I will handcuff you to one of us to keep you from sneaking off." He turned away. "Change your clothes before you get hypothermia."

Immediately the amnesiac wanted to know if Naru had ever carried out the threat. The prospect was mortifying. She turned to the narcissist with fearful eyes.

"No, Mai. I never handcuffed you to anyone. Once I waved them at you and after that you decided that you would much prefer to stay put in the base," he informed her. "You still sneaked off though and did stupid things."

"Do I do it again on this case?"

Naru paused the video. "Nearly, Lin and I followed you after you woke up from a dream and pulled you out of the way of a collapsing wall."

Mai blanched, she had been stupid on that case.

"Thank you," she said.

Naru's eyes widened fractionally. "You never said that when it actually happened."

The amnesiac wasn't too surprised. She knew that sometimes Naru's attitude and comments annoyed her a lot and she had often lost her train of speech and didn't apologise or thank him.

"What was the resolution of the case?" she asked.

"As it turned out, you had a dream about where to find a hitogata and went to find it. I made you spit it out and we found it. The client's name was on it and we disposed of it in the proper way. We did some further investigating into the area and found that most of the locals were against the property development and one of them had constructed the hitogata."

It sounded unusually short and simple for an SPR case, Mai reflected as Naru stood up and turned the projector off and ejected the disk from his laptop.

"You can read the case report if you want as long as you put it back where you found it," Naru told her and handed it to her.

Mai took it to be a dismissal and returned to her desk. On her way back she heard something drop and she bent down to pick up the sheet that had slipped out of the file. A closer inspection revealed it to be something unrelated to the case.

It was a photo of her sitting next to Naru who was smiling at her.


	4. Kitsune

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 4:**

Mai retrieved her photo album and matched the background of the photo which was a painting of a cherry blossom tree, to a set of photos where there was a residue and a blank space indicating that a photo had been stuck there and removed later. She placed the photo in the area, it fitted perfectly.

The series of photos were taken at what looked like a ramen restaurant. Mai checked the date on the back of the photo which matched with the date that the Case #26 had been solved on so the photos were taken at the celebratory meal for the case, but why had the photo been removed from the album and placed in the case file? It didn't seem to be an official thing to do, but Naru hadn't commented on it when he had gone through the file. Admittedly, he had only taken the disk out, he hadn't touched the report so the photo may have been placed between the pages.

She frowned. If that was the case, the photo would have dropped out on her way to giving it to Naru. Had he put it in there?

She glanced over at Yasuhara, who might know the answer, but he was part of the group that was keeping something back from her, making her unwilling to ask. She needed to ask someone who would be willing to tell her and was close enough to her to know what was going on.

Bou-san and Ayako were not candidates, neither were Yasuhara and Masako. Lin was a maybe as was John. Naru was an unknown, he was keeping why she had stopped working for him back, but he had shown her the video and if he had put the photo in the file, he might be helping her get her memory back.

She scrolled through the contacts on her phone which were limited. Aside from the SPR irregulars, Lin and Madoka, there were not many people. Keiko-chan was a possibility. If she still had her number, then they were still acquainted and Keiko had never had a direct connection with SPR so she was her best option.

Mai resolved to call her during her lunch break so there would be no danger of anyone from SPR overhearing her. However this plan was unexpectedly scuppered by Naru.

"Mai, come with me," he ordered as he swept past her, dressed in his coat. "Wrap up warm."

They walked down a few streets together and through the famous human tide crossing in Shibuya until Naru led her into a restaurant. The waiter at the counter smiled at her.

"Taniyama-san! I haven't seen you or Shibuya-san for a couple of years! You two can have your usual table."

Rather understandably Mai gave Naru a questioning look whilst they were led through the relatively quiet restaurant by the waiter.

"We used to come here every day for lunch," he informed her as they sat down at a small table in the corner. "I thought it might help you with your amnesia."

Mai smiled. "Thank you, Naru."

Naru returned her smile with a real smile on his face, not his fake one for clients. "I will order your favourite for you."

Mai opened the menu doubtfully to find that there was quite the variety of dishes available from a sunday roast to spaghetti to ramen. The photo of the Kitsune Udon caught her eye. She glanced up to see Naru staring at her with a glint in his eye.

"The Kitsune Udon and a glass of grapefruit juice, right?"

She blinked. "How did you know that?"

"Because you ordered it very frequently over the four year period that we ate here. Guess what I am going to order?"

The amnesiac ran her finger down the pages of the menu. Ramen was not an option- the image did not suit Naru. Her finger stopped on the list of western dishes. Most of them like fish and chips did not look sophisticated so she settled on a sunday roast.

When she told him, Naru smiled again. "This place is the only restaurant in Tokyo that gets it right which is why I chose to come here with you so frequently."

A very obvious question made itself apparent in Mai's mind. "Why come with me? Wouldn't Lin-san be better?"

She conjured up an image of Lin and Naru sitting together out of work hours in a restaurant discussing the weather and the state of the economy, it didn't feel right.

"Although your intelligence is inferior, your personality is more agreeable and talking to you has its good points," Naru informed her, much to Mai's surprise.

She thought back to all of the conversations she had had with Naru. These conversations normally involved him asking for tea or insulting her intelligence.

"You just liked making fun of me whenever I said anything stupid," she said.

Naru did not answer which answered Mai's question. She sighed.

"Sometimes I wandered if you ever saw me as a person beyond your slow witted assistant."

She looked down at the patterns on the tablecloth, missing Naru's frown and downcast expression completely, meaning that she missed out on yet another hint.

"Mai, although you don't remember it, I stopped making insults about your intelligence and animal instincts once you became more trained," he told her kindly. "In return you stopped making comments about my narcissism."

Mai risked a glance at Naru. He looked entirely serious and not pitying like he had been when she had confessed to him. Clearly a lot had changed with Naru in the past six years."

"Are you still a narcissist? Do I need to stop calling you Naru?" she asked, returning to her previous curious mood.

"Mai, how can I be a narcissist if I am in-" he broke off suddenly. "Naru is fine."

After their lunch the pair walked back to the office at a slow pace due to the fact that the amnesiac kept pausing to compare technology and fashion stores to the ones she remembered from six years ago. Instead of telling her to hurry up like the old Naru would have done, he seemed to be content to wait for her.

Only when they arrived back at the office did Mai remember that she had been planning to call Keiko. She sighed and sat down at her desk, planning to call her after she had finished work and managed to type a memo on her phone to remind her.

"Mai."

She looked up to see Naru standing right by her desk. "Yes?"

"Some clients should be arriving in a few minutes, go make some tea and keep quiet," he ordered and walked away.

"Did I embarrass myself in front of a client?" she hissed at Yasuhara who twitched.

"Just the once. It was understandable, the client was an idiot who kept flirting with you and in the end you poured tea over him."

The clients this time turned out to be a young married couple who were living in a house which appeared to be haunted as the furniture regularly moved and ghostly footsteps could be heard. Mai was expecting Naru to say that they were imagining it and to go see a doctor which would be very typical of him, but he took notes quietly and arranged to visit the house the following day.

Yasuhara and Lin did not look too surprised by this, leaving Mai to infer that the narcissist had decided to actually be pleasant to clients and not look bored or be picky with cases.

Later that day, on her route back from the toilet to her desk, Mai walked past Lin's office and heard Naru's voice.

"I know it is perfectly obvious what is causing the hauntings, but it would be good for Mai to start participating in cases again and develop her abilities, it will help with her amnesia."

She inched closer to the door to hear Lin's reply.

"...Noll. Are you trying to make up for what happened two years ago?"

Her ears pricked up. Was Lin referencing whatever caused her to leave SPR?

Unfortunately for her she heard footsteps approach the door and someone turn the door handle so she darted back to her desk and tried to look busy. Yasuhara looked up to give her a mystified look, presumably for the speed at which she had run to her desk from the toilet which was not her usual practise. Lin's office door was not viewable from his desk, something that Mai was glad for due to the fact that she was positive that Yasuhara was in on whatever was being kept from her.

That evening Mai packed her bag with necessities to last for a few days, as per Naru's instructions. As most of the incidents occurred at night, it had been decided that they would all stay the night and the former narcissist had informed her that he was not going to drive her home or to a supermarket if she ran out of anything. Vaguely, she wondered what would happen if she ran out of tampons.

She set her alarm to ensure that she didn't arrive late like she often had and saw her memo about calling Keiko. She dialled her number in lieu of finally getting an answer, unaware that Naru had got to Keiko first.

They exchanged pleasantries and Mai explained about her amnesia and turned the conversation onto the feeling that something was being kept from her.

"I haven't spoken to you for about a month, so I wouldn't know," Keiko said. "Maybe you got drunk and said or did something you shouldn't have done."

Mai blanched. She really hoped that it wasn't the case, but she had a gut feeling that there was more to her situation than a drunken mistake.

"Perhaps. Keiko-chan, why did I stop working for SPR two years ago? Naru says I need to find out for myself and no one else will tell me," she griped. "It isn't helping my amnesia."

There was a short silence before Keiko replied and Mai thought that the connection had cut for a moment.

"...I don't know. You never told me, I'm sorry that I can't tell you. I think you should just do as your boss says and work it out for yourself."

Their conversation passed onto other channels and Mai got the dirt on what everyone in her class in high school had been doing since graduation and who married who.

"...Guess what job Michiru-chan has now?" Keiko asked.

Mai considered it based on her interests in high school. "Fashion Designer?"

Keiko laughed. "No! She's a housewife with two children."

"Really!?" the amnesiac gasped and happened to notice the time. "Ah! It's nearly midnight and I have to get up early for a case tomorrow. I will call you when I can."

"Bye, Mai-chan."

The brunette placed her phone on the bedside table, turned off the light, settled down to go to sleep and had one of the most random dreams she had experienced.

_Her stomach felt like it something was being stabbed into it repeatedly and she doubled over in pain in her futon with one hand scrabbling in her overnight bag for painkillers, a search that turned out to be futile._

_She limped across that tatami mat floor, past a sleeping Ayako and Masako and into the brightly lit neighbouring room where Naru was sat watching the camera feed._

_"Mai, it's one in the morning..." he said without turning around. "What are you doing up? Did you have a dream?"_

_She flopped onto his lap. "Stomach cramps. Do you have any painkillers?"_

_He sighed. "No one ever told me that being a boyfriend was this challenging. I still remember you sending me out to the convenience store at 5 am to get you your... necessities."_

_As he spoke he deposited her off his la and passed her his water bottle bottled and rummaged in the first aid kit for painkillers._

_"Take two and go back to bed," he ordered._

_She pouted. "Painkillers don't work instantly."_

_Moments after taking the painkillers she winced in pain and relaxed when Naru put his arms around her and squeezed her tight._

_"Go to sleep Mai."_

_A short while later she dropped off to sleep and was jerked awake almost immediately by someone carrying her and placing her delicately into her futon and pulling the covers over her. Naru kissed her forehead._

_"Sleep well, Mai," he whispered softly. "I need some more information to solve this case, let me know if you have an informative dream."_


	5. Tatami

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 5:**

The following morning Mai was abruptly woken up by her alarm clock and she half heartedly slapped it to turn it off and sat up.

Last night's dream had been exceedingly weird. Admittedly stomach cramps at that time of the month were not an unusual occurrence for her, but the other parts had been strange. Naru was her boyfriend and referenced buying her necessities at an inconvenient time and hugged her to make her feel better. There was also that indirect kiss via his water bottle. She fought back a giggle and a blush. That dream had been very surreal.

The amnesiac stretched her arms and got ready for work. There was plenty of time to mull over her dream on the van ride to the house and it would give her something to do as Naru had always tended to glare at her when she tried to make conversation or flipped pages of a book too loudly.

Another surprise awaited Mai when she got into the van and Lin started the engine. The former narcissist held out of the case file to her.

"Read it and ask me questions of you get confused."

Mai stated at him for a few moments before taking the file. The 25 year old Oliver Davis was certainly a lot better mannered than his younger counterpart. She wondered how and why the change had occurred.

The case involved strange noises, furniture moving and the wife was unable to account for some of her time at night. Mai flipped to the next page, this case didn't seem to have anything too defining to it unlike the labyrinth case or the Gellerini case. In fact this case sounded like a bad ghost movie plot.

She thought back to the conversation she had overheard at SPR. If she remembered correctly Naru had said something along the lines of "it is perfectly obvious what is causing the hauntings".

The psychic searched the next page in the file carefully for clues. The house was built in the post war period where the infrastructure of Japan was hastily rebuilt, if she had the date correct. The following page in the file was a map of the area in the 1930s before the house was built. Mai squinted at the area that had been circled and then it clicked.

"The strange occurrences are because the house was built on top of a graveyard?" she consulted the expert.

He nodded. "Well done, Mai. You got it faster than I expected."

Mai resisted the urge to blow a raspberry and a question came to her.

"If you had already worked it out, why are we here? It isn't like you to waste time."

The scientist glanced at her shrewdly. "You are right. We did have a very similar case a number of years ago," he paused to pass her another case file. "It took us two days to solve it as we didn't manage to find out that the house was built on top of a graveyard during the property boom until later- the records were harder to find. Read this file and tell me how this case is different."

Mai opened up the completed case file for Case #38. According to the date she had been 19 when she had gone on this case. She scanned the first page... furniture moving...unearthly noises...possession of all family members...all occupants of house report similar occurrences. She checked the file for the current case, the last point was absent.

"Is it that none of the previous owners of this house reported anything and only the wife in this instance is being possessed?"

"Good, Mai. You are right. There is something different this time. I have an idea, but I need to investigate. As all activity occurs when it is dark, we will be staying the night."

"How did you prevent anymore hauntings last time?" Mai asked hopefully.

"Mass exorcism, courtesy of Takigawa-san, Matsuzaki-san and John. You helped a little too."

"But we only have John this time," Mai groused.

Her employer looked unhappy. "If the worst comes to the worst, I will call Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san."

This reminded Mai of Ayako and Bou-san's reaction to finding out about her working at SPR again. It had not been pretty and they had both hinted heavily that she should quit, both in complete agreement for once. Mai had told them that they should tell her why they had a problem with her working at SPR and they had completely backed down and not explained anything.

"When did you last work with Ayako and Bou-san?" she asked curiously, hoping to pick up some clues.

"Two years ago," he said shortly and looked out the window. "I'm not going to tell you why either, that is something you will have to remember yourself."

The amnesiac sighed at his answer and made a mental note to obtain all the files relating to cases from two years ago as she might find some clues there as to the turning point which caused Ayako and Bou-san to distrust Naru and for her to leave SPR. For now however, she should concentrate on this case. She plucked out the disk from its sleeve in the file and waved it at Naru.

"Can I watch this?"

Naru looked guarded momentarily and then he nodded and passed her his laptop.

"Try not to drain all the battery."

She inserted the disk and pressed play. This time it was Yasuhara who introduced the case.

"Case no.38. Osamu Yasuhara speaking."

The camera focused in on a modest two storey house with Ayako and Bou-san arguing off to the side. Mai caught the words "site bound spirit" and smiled, she definitely knew what they were arguing about.

"This case reeks of poltergeists- tapping, objects moving, the whole lot," Yasuhara observed. "Right, Naru?"

There was the sound of tapping feet and the manager of SPR made an appearance.

"Even Mai noticed that," he said simply and swept out of view again.

"Hey!" Mai heard her own voice screech.

"If you have time to be complaining, you have time to carry the equipment," he boss retorted. "Yasuhara, you can stop filming now, Mai is not going to be free to let her mind wander at the moment so we won't get any hints."

The amnesic Mai pouted and Naru, who had been discreetly watching her, smiled. He had missed Mai badly over the past two years and photos supplied, courtesy of Masako Hara were a poor substitute , but he still hadn't been willing to sacrifice his pride and apologise so he could see her again.

The case they were undertaking was not something that he considered to be dangerous so he didn't have to worry about her getting hurt again. The case that he was using as a reference had occurred when they were dating. Fortunately for his plan there were no mentions of it in the video that Mai was watching. It wouldn't do for Mai to know about their past relationship too soon.

* * *

4 Years ago:

_Naru frowned over the floor plan again and the results of Yasuhara's brief research. He was missing the clue that he needed to solve the case. They had stayed one night and the spirits or whatever was causing the strange occurrences, was acting differently._

_He pulled out before and after photos of the living room on the ground floor where all the activity was centred. There was something familiar about the new layout of furniture, but he couldn't place it for the moment. He needed some tea._

_As if timed, a teacup was placed on the table he was sitting at and he looked up to see Mai standing behind him with a twinkle in her brown eyes._

_"How did you know that I was about to call you for tea?"_

_She grinned and reached out to tweak his nose._

_"I know you very well. There's a pattern in when you demand tea on a case."_

_"Your high school education did not go to waste, then," he took a sip of tea and gestured for her to sit opposite him._

_Mai sat down and pulled the photos towards her and glanced at the stack of monitors on the opposite side of the base where Lin was sitting with headphones on._

_"Did the cameras get anything last night?" she asked._

_"We are still reviewing the footage," Naru answered. "But as you know the furniture moved to a different position and a name was written in blood on the wall."_

_Mai looked thoughtful and suddenly perked up._

_"Last night I thought I heard someone walk down the stairs," she said slowly. "It was after I visited you in the base and fell asleep. The bathroom is upstairs, come to think of it, so it wasn't someone going to the toilet. It wasn't Masako or Ayako."_

_"What time was it?" Naru questioned sharply. "I went to bed after I put you in your futon and I normally get woken up when someone leaves the room I am sleeping in."_

_"I'm not sure, I went back to sleep straight after because I was tired. It was after 3, but before 5, I think because I woke up later on."_

_Lin took his headphones off and joined the conversation. "I've found the footage."_

_Mai and Naru crowded around the bank of screens and watched as the husband walked down the stairs and appeared on another screen as he entered the living room._

_"The furniture starts moving slowly at this point," Lin pointed. "This is when it starts to get a little different to what we were expecting to happen."_

_They watched as the client moved into the kitchen and pulled a knife out of the knife block and returned to the living room. Mai clutched Naru when he cut his finger with the knife and wrote the name "Takeshi Yamazaki" on the wall._

_"I sent Yasuhara off to research that name," Naru said and sat back down at the table once they had finished watching the footage. "We now know that the unaccounted time for the clients was caused by possession by spirits."_

_"But why?" Mai asked the obvious question._

_That was the stumbling block now that they had worked out the how. To solve the case they needed to work out the why. He looked at his assistant curiously._

_"I know you didn't sleep well last night due to stomach cramps, but did you have any dream?"_

_Mai nodded vigorously. "I had a nightmare which was what woke me up, but I had forgotten about it until now."_

_Naru sighed. Yet again Mai was keeping back information. Sometimes it was dreams that she had forgotten or small things that she didn't think would be vital to the case, she wasn't doing it intentionally, but it would speed up the solving of the case if she shared everything._

_"Lin, get the camera. We can add this to the case file."_

_The omnouji retrieved the video camera from its bag and positioned it so both his charge and girlfriend were in view._

_"You can start whenever you like," Naru said, notebook and pen poised to record details._

_The psychic took a deep breath before starting. "It was dark and I was being stabbed and it hurt. I died fairly quickly thankfully. Although I was a dead person in my dream, I could sense things that occurred after I died."_

_"A restless spirit," Naru noted. "Carry on."_

_"I was placed in a coffin and buried underground. For a while it was peaceful and then there were lots of loud noises and I couldn't get any peace. Then I woke up. I don't think was able to wake up before that," Mai pouted. "I wanted to wake up when I was being stabbed."_

_Swiftly, Naru's mind noticed the similarity between Mai description of a first person vision and the dream that she had had at the Urado mansion 8 years ago. Clearly someone had wanted her to see their death."_

_As he was trying to deduce why, Mai had returned to poring over the photographs. He jumped when she let out a shriek._

_"I've got it!" she waved a photo happily at him._

_Naru took it and found it was one of the photos the clients had taken of the furniture after it had been moved._

_"I don't see it."_

_Mai pointed. "It's like a graveyard. Everything has been moved to the middle of the room like the pathway in a cemetery."_

_Lin picked up a similar photo. "Mai-san is right. This house may have been built on top of a graveyard, disturbing those spirits not at rest."_

_"The spirits of murder victims are generally not at rest. Mai dreamt she was being murdered so it fits," Naru agreed. "All the previous owners of this house did not have any physic abilities so the spirits took to possessing and poltergiesting to get them to free them. Then Mai came along. The name written on the wall must be the person who showed her that dream."_

_The case was moderately simple after that breakthrough. Yasuhara's later research confirmed their suspicions. That night they had waited for either the husband or wife to leave their room and go downstairs and had released the spirit possessing them and had performed several exorcism to ensure all restless spirits left the house._

Naru looked over at Mai again to see that she looked very shocked with her eyes wide and skin pale. He moved to look over her shoulder to see what had shocked her. The video was currently at the part in the base where Mai was describing her dream.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Mai answered a little too quickly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a random trivia point some buildings were built on top of dead bodies in the post war period in Japan as they were rebuilt so fast.


	6. Astral Projection

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 6:**

Mai tried to slow her heartbeat. Recognising the base from the video as being the same as the one on her dream had given her a fright. She managed to calm down enough to continue to watch the video to deflect Naru's attention. She barely paid any attention to the exorcism and didn't even flinch when her younger self fell flat on her face in the middle of chanting the Nine Cuts as she was still reeling from the shock.

It was either a coincidence that the base in her dream was the same or it had been a memory of the case. If the latter option was correct that meant she had dated Naru.

She shook her head, that was obviously not true. The narcissist had rejected her and told her that she was in love with his twin, not him and he constantly insulted her, making it hard to believe that he would have gone out with an idiot like her.

No, her dream was just a coincidence.

When she exited the van with the file in her hand, another photo fluttered to the ground. The brunette picked it up, checking it for damage and saw that it was another photo of her and Naru in close proximity to each other. Was it another coincidence?

She tucked the photo in her pocket to evaluate later. It was time to set up the base. Naturally she had missed the face that Naru had been watching her carefully for the past five minutes since he had placed the photo in the file.

Once she was alone in her and John's bedroom- there only five of them on the case and only two of them had good tactical abilities so she was sharing with John- she pulled out the photo album from her bag and the photo from her pocket. Mai placed it in an empty gap in a set of photos taken at an Okonomiyaki restaurant. In this photo she was leaning into Naru and posing with two fingers behind his head to resemble bunny ears. As per the usual, the scientist did not look happy.

They had definitely not dated judging from that, Mai decided in satisfaction. It was all just a coincidence. She closed the album and went off to find something to do before Naru could accused her of slacking off.

His first words to her when she crossed the threshold of the base were, rather unsurprisingly,

"Mai, tea."

She rolled her eyes and toddled off to the kitchen and hoped there would be a brand of tea and flavour that Naru would drink, he had been quite fussy in the memories she had of him. The female client was in the kitchen when she entered, rolling dough to make Gyoza.

"Taniyama-san, was it? Do you need anything?" she asked.

"The boss wants tea," Mai explained. "Sumeragi-san, you don't have to make it, he's very particular about it."

"The tea is in this cupboard," the client showed her. "Also, please call me Hokuto-san, I'm still not used to my married name."

Mai boiled the kettle and selected a suitable teacup for Naru. As she waited for the water to boil she conversed with the client.

"How long have you and your husband been married for?" she enquired.

"Nearly two months, it was going to be in the summer, but it had to be moved forward for a reason," Hokuto answered with a smile. "I'm pregnant."

"Really?" Mai gaped, surprised as Hokuto looked to be the same age as her.

Hokuto gave her an amused look. "Yes. I am twenty four after all and I have been with him for seven years. Haven't you ever had a boyfriend? I thought your boss was giving you intent looks earlier when I saw him that either mean he hates you or loves you?"

Mai blinked. Was everything she saw and everyone she talked to going to hint that she had been involved with Naru romantically? He had rejected her. Admittedly he had become kinder, but that did not mean that he had developed romantic feelings towards her.

"No, that's how he usually looks," she laughed.

Her new friend looked doubtful "Well, you know him much better than I do... The water has boiled by the way."

Mindful of Naru complaining about tepid tea, Mai hastened to make the tea and carried back to the base. She placed it on the table next to him.

"Thank you," he said and looked up momentarily.

The amnesiac stared at him, recalling Hokuto's words. To her, Naru didn't look at her like he hated or loved her. She chalked it up to Hokuto not knowing Naru at all, neglecting to consider that Naru had been staring at her at times she hadn't been aware of it.

She sat down in a chair in the corner next to where Lin was typing at top speed and fished out her phone to text Ayako who had asked her to give her regular updates on how case was going.

"Mai, if you have nothing better to do than play on your phone, go and help John take photos of the furniture."

Mai placed her phone back in her pocket and walked off to find that Australian priest who she suspected may not be adverse to giving her some answers or at least some hints. She found him in the living room, photographing a vase.

"How is your head, Mai-san?" he asked kindly and joined her on the sofa where she had sat down.

"I have a check up at the hospital this weekend and some therapy is going to be arranged to help me recover my memory."

"That will be good for you," John answered and said the line that Mai had been hoping for. "If there is anything I can do, please let me know."

She raised her eyebrows. "John, what happened two years ago? It seems that something happened two years ago that no one will tell me about. I need an answer."

The priest ruffled his hair nervously. "Two years ago, I returned to Australia for several months and when I came back to Japan you were no longer working for SPR. The same goes for Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san, we were stuck on a case a week after my return and I suggested calling them in, but Shibuya-san informed me that they no longer worked for him."

Mai frowned. Something had certainly happened two years ago. She needed to go through all the case files which wasn't a pleasurable prospect as there was going to be a lot of videos to watch. A timeframe was needed to narrow it down.

"When did you go to Australia and come back?"

"I left Japan at the start of June and returned at the end of August," John looked curious. "Why?"

Mai blinked innocently. "No reason. Do you have any idea why I stopped working for SPR?"

John shook his head. "No. I'm sorry for not being there. However... the atmosphere around the office was strange after you went and Shibuya-san was always in a terrible mood. It was like that for a couple of months."

The figure who had been standing unnoticed in the doorway for several minutes finally spoke.

"Weren't you two supposed to be taking photos?"

Mai breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice. It was only Lin, another prospective candidate and considering his closeness to Naru, he had to know the most. Also she had noted that Lin called her "Mai-san" instead of "Taniyama-san" like she remembered meaning that they had become friendlier during the past six years.

She gestured for him to sit down next to her and much to her surprise he did. She opened her mouth to speak, but he jumped in before her.

"Mai-san, I know what you are going to ask me. Please be aware that people who know what happened are not telling you for a reason," he told her, looking more serious and focused than usual.

"Is it because they are afraid it will upset me?"

Lin nodded. "What happened to you was emotionally scarring for everyone involved, but it hurt you the most. Your amnesia is protecting you from recalling this event and hurting yourself. I will not tell you what happened though."

Mai smiled ruefully. The omnouji had a point. Deep down she knew that everyone like Ayako, Bou-san and Masako were keeping it from her because they cared for her and her amnesia wasn't blocking her last six years of memories arbitrarily. Perhaps she shouldn't pursue the truth because it would hurt her again. She was jerked out of her internal dilemma by Lin speaking again.

"But I will give you a hint. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to follow it," his voice dropped to a whisper. "Check your hospital records."

Mai's eyes widened. Did that mean she had been injured on a case badly enough to warrant Naru firing her? She was so intent on trying to work out what it could mean that she didn't notice a shadow fall over her.

"Whatever happened to taking photos and interviewing the clients?" a cold voice broke the silence.

In unison, all three investigators jumped at the suddenness of Naru's appearance and were quick to stand up and return to what they were supposed to be doing. Lin left the room in search of the clients and Mai grabbed the camera, leaving John to receive Naru's glare.

The former narcissist was in a strange mood all evening and kept glaring at Lin, leaving Mai to wonder if he had overheard them talking and wasn't happy because he didn't want her to know what happened. Perhaps he was not the person putting the photos in the files. Her mind instantly rejected that, today the photo had definitely not been there when she had looked through and there was no one else apart from her and Naru and Lin who was driving in the van so it must have been him.

Mai left the base for bed earlier than usual due to the fact that no one was talking and Naru's glare had turned on her whenever she made a noise. What Mai should have done was to listen at the door after she had left the room as everyone started speaking once she had gone.

"Noll, I did not tell her anything. Brown-san did not either," Lin insisted.

"I couldn't have told her anything anyway," John said. "I don't know what happened."

Naru looked mollified with John and suspicious when he glanced at his former bodyguard.

"Knowing you Lin, you gave her a hint of some sort."

The omnouji twitched, confirming Naru's suspicions.

"It should be fine. I cannot see Takigawa-san, Hara-san or Matsuzaki-san giving her a hint so she won't be able to build up the complete picture."

Yasuhara who had spent most of the day at the library researching and had only just arrived back in time for dinner, had missed everything and was trying to work out what had happened. However he had worked out enough to decide the promising not to say anything to Mai either would not get him a pay cut and allow him to keep his job.

"I haven't told her anything and I will not in the future either," he spoke up.

Whilst this conversation was occurring Mai was lying in her futon twiddling her thumbs. She resolved to ask to see her records when she went to the hospital for her check up and to check the SPR files for cases that occurred two years ago. She was aware that if she was not permitted to see her records and if Naru had hidden the case file, it was unlikely that she was going to get any answers. There was one avenue of investigation left that was not reliant on anyone else. She needed to have a dream that would answer all of her questions.

"What happened two years ago?" she asked out loud and kept the question in her mind as she drifted off to sleep, evened out her breathing and kept her body relaxed, aiming to astral project.

_***_

_Mai opened her eyes and found herself in her apartment in the kitchen. She peered at the calendar on the fridge and observed that the date was the 25th of July, two years ago. She had done it, or at least projected into the right time frame._

_A rustling sound made itself apparent and she peered through the open door to her bedroom to see her younger self throwing clothes from the wardrobe onto a pile on the floor. Mai took a closer look to see that they were all men's clothes, mostly black and dark blue shirts and was that a set of pale blue pyjamas?_

_"Should I burn them?" her 21 year old counterpart questioned aloud. "Or send them back to him? Which would be worse?"_

_The real Mai's eyes widened. She was now certain that she was witnessing the aftermath of a break up. But with who? So far she had more questions than answers. Something on past Mai's hand's flashed in the sunlight, allowing Mai to catch sight of a ring on her wedding ring finger._

_She had been engaged?_


	7. Bloodlines

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 7:**

Mai was jolted out of her astral projection as soon as she was about to gain more information. She opened her eyes and saw her roommate John, closing the cupboard in the corner and laying out his futon.

"I'm sorry for waking you up," he apologised when she yawned.

"It's fine," she sighed and closed her eyes again. There was a chance that she could astral project into the same time range again, but there was no guarantee of where she would go and it was unlikely she would see a direct continuation.

_The amnesiac was correct, where she ended up this time was completely different. She recognised the location as being the living room at Ayako's apartment but with a more modern television than the one she remembered and less leopard print cushions. Seated on the sofa were the priestess and monk, in one armchair was Masako Hara and in the other armchair was herself again, this time with shorter hair._

_"Jou-chan, the old lady and I have handed in our resignation letters at SPR. We can't work for that damn narcissist ever again," Bou-san informed her. "He won't get any help from us unless he begs us."_

_"Are you sure about that?" Mai's non amnesiac counterpart questioned, clasping her hands together. As she did so, Mai observed that she wasn't wearing a ring this time. "He did pay you."_

_Bou-san waved his hand. "We'll be fine, Jou-chan. I did work on cases before SPR if you remember. How about you, Masako-san?"_

_Masako hid her face behind her kimono sleeve before answering._

_"If he asks for my help, I will give him assistance. We don't wish for his death and if he has insufficient information on a case, he may do something that endangers his life again."_

_"It's fine, Masako-chan," the brunette replied. "I'm very annoyed with him, but I do not wish him dead."_

_"Where's your ring?" Ayako gestured at her hand. "Did you send it to him along with the other stuff?"_

_"I'm keeping to remind myself to choose someone better next time."_

_Mai waited for more revelations to come, but found herself being pulled out of her dream by someone shaking her awake._

"Mai-san!"

She managed to make out John's face in the darkness of the bedroom.

"What?" she groaned groggily.

"Something has happened downstairs," he said and Mai sat up instantly.

They rushed down the stairs, through the hallway and into the living room where the rest of the team were crouched over something on the floor.

"Lin, how long did the ambulance say they would be?" Naru was asking.

"Fifteen minutes," the omnouji answered tersely. "We need to staunch the bleeding otherwise it might be too late for her."

Mai walked over and peered over their heads and immediately understood the urgency. The client, Hokuto Sumeragi was lying on the floor with blood flowing from deep gashes in her wrists. Her eyes were closed and her skin had taken on a deathly pallor. Yasuhara passed Lin a roll of parcel tape from the kitchen the omnouji wrapped the tape tightly around her wrists.

The ambulance arrived shortly after and Yasuhara elected to accompany the client along with her husband to the hospital.

The investigators adjourned to the base and sat around the table whist the omnouji went through the camera footage to find the event.

"It was fortunate that I happened to pass the base on my way to the bathroom and notice activity on the monitors," Lin said. "She might be dead if I hadn't."

"She was possessed, wasn't she?" Mai questioned.

"This should show it," Lin pointed at a monitor and they all watched Hokuto Sumeragi step out of her bedroom with a vacant look in her eyes and walk slowly down the stairs, take a knife from the kitchen and slit her wrists in the middle of the living room.

"The spirit clearly has a murderous intent towards Sumeragi-san," the former narcissist observed the obvious.

"But this house was built before she was born," the amnesiac pointed out.

Naru looked her in the eye and Mai's brain finally had the opportunity to add up the observations from her astral projection. She had been engaged to someone that like wearing dark colours and pale blue pyjamas and employed Ayako, Bou-san and Masako and she only knew one person that met that criteria.

Naru.

She had been engaged to Naru.

That had not been something that she had been expecting to find up. Naru's rejection of her confession two years, no eight years ago had always been fresh in her mind and she had only maintained a work relationship with him so this revelation was shocking for her.

"...Mai!"

Naru's voice caused her to jump in her seat.

"Mai, I asked you if you had a dream."

The brunette didn't feel like she could look at his face after finding out the truth so she settled for keeping her gaze fixed on the table and muttering a reply.

"No."

It hadn't been possible for her to have a dream regarding the case because she had been busy astral projecting into the past and now the client had nearly died and they didn't have an clues.

"The key to solving this case is Hokuto Sumeragi-san. She is the only occupant of this house reported to have been possessed," Lin observed and Mai turned her eyes on him as everyone would be suspicious if she looked down at the table all the time,

Naru nodded. "The one who talked to her most would be Mai. Tell us everything you know, Mai."

The brunette recalled their conversation in the kitchen and another they had in the evening when Mai was supposed to be interviewing her and they had ended up gossiping.

"She is 24," she began unsurely. "She is a few months pregnant."

Due to the fact that she was determined not look at Naru she missed his flinch.

"She is newly married and her maiden name is Kuzuki and she has an identical twin and that's all I know."

There was a thoughtful silence as all the investigators tried to come up with an avenue of investigation.

"This house is built on a graveyard, there is a restless spirit which indicates a murder," John said out loud. "Perhaps we should ask Yasuhara-san to check out her family tree as the event must have happened in the past."

Mai gave him a thumbs up. "That sounds like a good idea."

John looked at Naru for affirmation.

"I will call Yasuhara-san," the scientists said.

He stood up and walked out of the room leaving Mai with the priest and omnouji. Grateful for Naru's absence, Mai rested her head on the table and sighed heavily.

"Are you all right, Mai-san?" John asked worriedly.

Mai opened one eye and realised that this was the perfect opportunity to ask for confirmation. Like she had predicted before, Lin and John were more likely to tell her things from the past than the monk, Ayako or Yasuhara.

"I astral projected last night," she blurted out.

Lin and John looked puzzled and exchanged confused glances.

"What did you see?"

"I was engaged. To Naru."

The frozen looks on their faces followed by knowing looks confirmed everything for Mai and she knew that it was undoubtedly true.

"I was really engaged to Naru," she moaned. "And no one told me or even hinted at it."

Even as she said that her memory backtracked to cut off sentences that she hadn't picked up on at the time.

Bou-san at the hospital:  _"you even dat-"_

Naru, when she had enquired about his newfound manners:  _"It was something about being kinder to your gi- employees."_

That time with Naru at the restaurant:  _"Mai, how can I be a narcissist if I am in-"_

Her phone call to Keiko now seemed to be strange, her best friend hadn't mentioned her past relationship with Naru and it would have been one of the first things to tell your amnesiac best friend. Then she remembered that Naru had been in very close proximity when she had written the reminder to call her. Clearly he had got to Keiko before her.

She sighed, she was supposed to be psychic and she had missed all of these signs.

"Mai-san."

She looked up to see Lin staring at her in concern.

"I'm sorry that I could not tell you. An agreement was made between all of us not to mention your relationship until later on as mentally you are still 17 and it would be too much for you to take in at once."

Mai took "us" to mean all of the old SPR irregulars. It did explain their shifty behaviour whoever any mention of Naru came up.

"I understand Lin-san. I just don't like knowing that something important is being kept from me by all of the people that I trust and like," she answered sadly. "When did we start dating?"

"When you were 18. It was a great surprise to you but not anyone else because we had all observed how Naru stared at you and always softened around you and took care to introduce you to his parents when they came here for a visit- he didn't bother introducing anyone else," he explained with a small smile. "I'm afraid to say that the manner in which he asked you to be his girlfriend was not very romantic."

Mai leaned forward to hear more, forgetting that she was annoyed with everyone for keeping it back from her.

"You had a close encounter with a ghost that carried an axe," Lin started and Mai remembered one of her dreams that she had had on her first night after being discharged from the hospital. "After rescuing you and whilst everyone else was doing the exorcism, he turned to you and told you that you were too dim-witted to survive on your own hunting ghosts and that you should always stay close to him as his handsomeness and brains would protect you. Then he dragged you off and I believe that I heard kissing noises when I walked through the house later on to pack up the equipment."

A blush spread up Mai's face and she flushed a brick shade of red. Had that really happened? She had made out with Naru... she had been kissed by someone that she had always loved and she had always believed it would be unrequited and her rejected confession had given that belief credence.

She sobered on remembering what she had seen of the aftermath of the break up. The incident two years ago must have been their break up. That said, something must have caused it and she was sure it was something major if she was supposed to check her hospital records.

"Mai-san," Lin whispered suddenly. "Considering that Noll was my charge and I work for his parents- I should not tell you this, but I think Noll is planning something. "I saw him put a photo in the case report yesterday when I was driving the van."

Mai raised an eyebrow. She had guessed that Naru was up to something when she had remembered his job offer, her phone call to Keiko and the mysteriously appearing photos.

"Did I send a collection of photos to him after we broke up?" she asked.

"Yes. I think Noll keeps them in a desk drawer at the office and a few in his apartment," Lin replied, looking suspicious of her sudden question. "There was a large framed photo of you two on a date that used to be in his hallway but it isn't there anymore."

The door to the base opened and the trio for the second time in two days lurched into action and tried to look busy. Lin grabbed his headphone and John and Mai picked up ghost hunting books from the stack on the floor.

"I have dispatched Yasuhara to research Sumeragi-san's family tree," the lead investigator announced and sat back down in his seat. "Mai, tea."

Mai practically fled from the base, due to her desire to stay away from her former fiancée for now.

Naru's eyes turned cold. "Did something happen whilst I was gone?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hokuto Sumeragi is one of the main character is a manga that was my first exposure to ghost hunting and Omnouji which caused me to raise an eyebrow whilst reading Ghost Hunt and several things were portrayed different like summoning Shiki and the Nine Cuts. (Shiki are summoned using a piece of paper with a pentagram and slashing motions are not required for the Nine Cuts)


	8. Revelations

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 8:**

The amnesiac curled up in the corner of her shared bedroom. She was upset because she had been lied to, or had not been told vital facts. It seemed to be that no one close to her actually wanted her to recover her memories. The SPR irregulars had done their best to keep her away from Naru although Masako has been the one to take her to the office- she definitely needed to have a word with the haughty medium.

Lin and John were part of this group, although they did not fully agree with it and Lin had eventually told her the truth which was she grateful for.

Naru had his own plan and had got Keiko to hide the truth from her.

She sighed deeply. It was short sighted for anyone to think that she would be able to fit right back into her old life as if she wasn't six years too young for it and to stall her from regaining her memory by not telling her major facts about her past.

Deciding to have a talk with her new so called best friend, Masako Hara, Mai dialled her number. The medium took the call after several rings.

"Mai-chan? Are you all right?" Masako asked worriedly. "Did something happen on the case?"

Unwilling to waste time on pleasantries, Mai cut straight to the chase. "When were you planning on informing me that I dated Naru for three years?"

A sharp intake of breath could be heard before Masako answered.

"How did you find out? I'm guessing John or Lin-san slipped up. It was obvious they didn't like the idea of keeping it from you."

The amnesiac noted for future reference that Masako did not sound remotely ruffled that she had found out, she seemed to be surprised.

"I astral projected and saw enough things to get Lin-san to tell me. Were you ever going to tell me the truth?"

"Mai-chan, I did not want to keep this from you. Remember that I was the one to take you to SPR?" she pointed out. "I knew that not telling you wasn't going to do any good so I led you to Naru and left the rest up to him."

"Were Ayako and Bou-san ever going to tell me?" Mai moved on.

"The agreement was that you would be told eventually- this was before Naru rehired you of course. Are you angry with them?"

Mai considered it. They clearly had her best interests at heart and had overdone it.

"No, I'm just tired of being an amnesiac and not knowing anything," she said truthfully. "Are  _you_  going to tell me what happened two years ago?"

"You broke up with Naru," Masako answered bluntly which felt refreshing to Mai who had become used to everyone she talked to hedging their words and not finishing sentences.

Mai took a deep breath before asking the next question. "Why?"

As she predicted, the medium did not give her a full answer.

"That is not for me to say. It is between you and Naru. Sorry, Mai-chan."

A light knock on the door caused her to stiffen and her gut instinct informed her who it was.

"Bye Masako-chan!"

She hastily ended the call and waited for the person standing outside to come in. The door opened and Naru stepped across the threshold with an unreadable look on his face and Mai knew that he wasn't here to ask her why she was taking so long with his tea.

He glanced over at her and a nervous look momentarily appeared in his blue eyes which did not go unnoticed by her. Much to her surprise he walked over to her and sat down on the tatami met opposite her.

"You know," he stated simply. "I never expected you to use your abilities."

Mai nodded and twirled a stand of her hair before speaking.

"Why didn't you tell me? Surely a three year relationship with their boss should be one of the things that you tell an amnesiac?"

Naru sighed and his face lost its blank look. "I worked out that  _they_ were not going to tell you and I did not want to tell you outright for several reasons," he paused. "Firstly, you were very likely not to believe me.

Upon hearing this, Mai twitched as she was still having trouble believing that she had been engaged to someone who had been an arrogant narcissist.

"Secondly, it would have been too much of a shock to you. If I had told you the moment we met again, you would have felt overwhelmed," he explained and then looked her straight in the eye. "My last reason is a little selfish. When you get your memory back, you are almost guaranteed to hate me and never want to see me again and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with you."

He reached out and grasped her hand. "I'm sorry, Mai."

Mai stared at him and squeezed his hand in return and thought of something to say that wasn't related to her amnesiac, intending to catch him off guard later so he would be more likely to tell her the whole truth.

"Naru, why did you love me?"

Naru looked surprised that she hadn't asked any further questions about the secrecy surrounding their past relationship, but he answered nonetheless.

"Because you were always happy, unwilling to hate people even if they deserved it and you were willing to use your abilities to help others. Over time I realised that I was always waiting for your face to burst into a smile and I wanted to be the one to make you smile."

Almost instantly Mai blushed tomato red and was surprised at the... sappiness of Naru's answer. She had never expected him to say anything like that.

"I also enjoy it when you blush. Even after our relationship progressed further, you always blushed at the slightest thing I did."

His face broke into a small smile and Mai flushed an even brighter shade of red as she caught onto what he was hinting at.

A second later Naru's face became serious again. "As a way of not overwhelming you, I let you watch those case videos and put the photos in the files. I judged that you would have deduced our past relationship after one more photo. I was not expecting you to take the initiative and find out for yourself."

Mai made the decision to ask the important question that he had been haunting her for days.

"What is the event that occurred two years ago?"

Her former fiancé's gaze dropped down to the tatami mat and he was silent for a moment before he caught hold of her other hand.

"It was all my fault that time. I should have apologised, but my pride stopped me and you refused to see me again until I apologised," he shuddered. "Through Hara-san, I have kept an eye on you to make sure that you were safe and then I heard you had been in an accident and had amnesia..."

With bated breath she waited for him to continue and caught sight of a drop of water falling onto the tatami mat. She bent her head and saw that the man who she had always thought of as being impregnable and cold hearted, was crying. She let go of his hand momentarily to give him her handkerchief that she carried in her pocket.

"If I had swallowed my pride and done the right thing two years ago, we could be married right now and you would not have been in the accident and you would not have amnesia," Naru said once he had calmed down.

"What did you do 2 years ago?"

"We undertook a case for an important client. The case was very complex and the investigation was not easy. We never had any free time together and you kept trying to tell me something and I was always too busy to listen and that was what led to  _it_."

"What is "it"?" Mai asked fearfully, having never seen her boss so emotional about anything before, including his brother's death.

"The spirit only attacked people of a certain criteria and you met that criteria so it tried to attack you."

The brunette leaned closer. Lin had told her to check her hospital records which indicated that she had sustained an injury on the case and this tallied with what Naru was saying.

"Did it succeed?"

"I jumped in front of you and was about to blast it away using my PK despite the risk to my wellbeing and you pushed me out the way and sustained an injury to your stomach," he stopped and gripped her hand again. "The others did exorcise the ghost and I rushed you to hospital for immediate treatment as your condition was bad."

Mai frowned. She felt like the story was missing something. The information that she had been told so far was not worthy of a huge rift between her and everyone else and for her to break up with him.

"I am ashamed to say that I was not too pleasant to you when you woke up from the surgery," Naru bowed his head even deeper. "I said that you would not be in that condition if you hadn't pushed me out of the way and blamed you. Quite understandably you were very annoyed and demanded that I apologise and I refused to unless you did first. And I never did apologise."

The amnesiac raised an eyebrow. Her instincts were telling her that he had left something instrumental to their split because she was certain that she wouldn't have broken up with him because of that.

"What I should have done was realise that you were trying to save me because you held my life in a higher regard than yours and did it on instinct without thinking and I was annoyed by your selflessness and disregard for your life," Naru added. "So I will apologise now. I'm sorry, Mai."

Mai wasn't sure what to think. Deep down she had entertained the notion that if she found out what happened two years ago she might get her memory back. This could be proof that yet again something was being kept back from her.

Awkwardly she patted him on the head for lack of anything to say because she couldn't remember anything meaning that most of the significance was lost on her.

"You can say it again when I have my memory back," she smiled at him. "It will mean much more."

The next thing she knew Nary was pulling her closer for a hug which made her feel warm inside and sparked a feeling of familiarity. This caused her to remember reading somewhere that even if the mind forgets an event, the body will still remember.

She was prepared to stay with Naru like that for a while, however fate was against them and Lin came bursting in seconds later.

"Yasuhara-san found it," Lin announced before he registered what his former charge and his assistant were doing. "...It's good that you two have made up, but please remember that there is a case to solve. I will be in the base... when you are ready, Noll."

The omnouji left the room in a hurry to give them some time together.

Mai coughed when Naru showed no sign of letting her go and returning to the base.

"Um, Naru..."

As if with great effort, the former narcissist released her and kept hold of her hand and led the way to the base.

"Report," he ordered Lin tersely once they had sat down at the table in the base.

Lin looked carefully at his superior's face and noted that some of the tension that had been building up for the past few days had gone and he was noticeably calmer. Correctly, he surmised that Naru had told Mai the truth, or at least some of it. If she knew all of it, it was unlikely that she was be sitting in the base waiting for him to explain his findings.

"Yasuhara-san found an old newspaper article with details the murder of someone named Arashi Kishu which was committed by a woman named Yuzuriha Kuzuki who is Sumeragi-san's great grandmother. He scanned the article and the library and sent it to me," Lin said and held up a print out. "Look at the drawing accompanying the article."

Mai craned her neck to get a good view and instantly understood the significance. The old and grainy drawing resembled Hokuto Sumeragi exactly. Both had short dark hair and a small face. The text of the article listed that the death had been caused by a fight over a man that escalated into murder.

"The spirit must think that Sumeragi-san is her murderer and wants revenge," John summed up.

Naru looked thoughtful. "If so she should be easy to exorcise. We need a hitogata."

***

Once the hitogata had been prepared the investigators lay in wait for Arashi Kushu's spirit to appear. At 1:15am the furniture in the living room began to shake and Naru stepped out from behind the sofa.

"Arashi Kishu-san?" he questioned loudly.

The vase on top of the bookshelf fell off and shattered on the laminate floor.

"I will take that as a yes," Naru commented dryly. "You were killed by Yuzuriha Kuzuki; by a slight stretch of fancy, do you wish for revenge?"

As he spoke a faint silhouette began to form on the wall, becoming more defined until it materialised as a woman wearing a white yukata with her long black hair falling in front of her face.

"You can have her then," he said and drew out the hitogata and threw it at the figure in one smooth motion. "Now that you have her, you have no reason to stay here."

The figure began to fade from view and eventually she disappeared completely. Mai sighed in relief and freed herself from the curtain where she had been hiding. She had been worried that Naru would anger the spirit and end up using his PK. Lin also looked like he had been having the same thoughts as he looked very relieved when they returned to the base.

"It's too late to return home tonight," Naru informed them. "In any case everyone should go and get some sleep. Mai, stay here with me."


	9. Proposal

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 9:**

Naru drew out a folder from his overnight bag and passed it to her.

"These are the remaining missing photos from the SPR photo album you have."

Mai blinked in surprise and accepted it gratefully. She opened it and experienced the development of her and Naru's relationship through the photos. In the early ones they were only sitting next to each other, in some they were holding hands. A later one caused Mai to flush to the roots of her hair.

The photo was of her being pushed up against a wall by Naru and in the next he appeared to be kissing her very forcefully.

Naru moved to look over her shoulder. "Is it  _that_  one? It was a very intriguing case and eventually you provided the solution and had a big celebration and I... rewarded you."

Mai looked up at him, she had completely forgotten to consider deeply how far they had gone together and the photo proved to be a hint that they had gone pretty far. To distract herself from those thoughts, she turned to the next photo and blushed even harder. The photo depicted Naru, who was dressed in a navy blue shirt instead of black and was smiling smoulderingly at the camera. She wondered who had taken the photo.

This unspoken question was answered by her former fiancée.

"You took that photo of course, who else would I show that smile to?"

Mai felt warm inside and she cheered up, feeling considerably happier than she had been the previous day. A hand snaked under her arm and turned the page to another photo.

"This case was at an amusement park and the owner was very grateful and we spent the rest of the day on the rides. Well, I only went on one; the Ferris wheel with you," he pointed to the photo where he and Mai was kissing on the Ferris wheel. "I absolutely refused to go on the spinning teacups though."

The image of Naru petulantly refusing to sit in a spinning teacup caused Mai to giggle and she had a sudden flash of a more concrete image of Naru being dragged by her past a haunted house and he was protesting that his love of tea did not mean that he wanted to sit in an oversized teacup and be spun around. Was that a real memory?

Perhaps Naru's confession was causing her memories to slowly return in small fragments. Keen to see another memory, she flipped to the next page and was confronted by the image of Naru sitting at a low table with a half full pint glass of what looked like beer in front of him.

"You drink beer?"

Naru nodded. "Bou-san invited us to his apartment after one case and he claimed that I wasn't a man unless I drank one glass of beer. Five pints later, he gave his full approval to our relationship and offered to be my best man."

"Did he not approve of our relationship before?"

"He did not say anything. However I think he just wanted to get me drunk so he could get Dr. Oliver Davis' autograph," Naru said wryly.

Mai grinned, that did sound like Bou-san and a thought occurred to her suddenly. She had been engaged to the famous Dr. Oliver Davis?

"Naru, did your parents approve of me?" she questioned worriedly.

For that she received a soft pat on the head from the former narcissist.

"Of course. They loved you. When we stayed with them in London, my mother would take you shopping, my father loved your anecdotes about our cases and they were looking forward to the wedding..."

He looked sad momentarily before continuing. "I suppose you would like to know how I proposed to you?"

The brunette nodded fervently and Naru began the story.

* * *

_The renowned scientist Dr. Oliver Davis glared at the small red velvet box in his hand. Inside was a ring that he had spent three hours choosing in a jewellery shop. He was intending on proposing to Mai in a number of hours and was trying to find a non cliché method of doing it that would not be too sappy._

_He stared at his reflection in the mirror and adjusted the collar of his white shirt self consciously. White was not his usual colour of choice; he had observed that wearing lighter colours always disarmed Mai and caused her to blush prettily so he was going all out tonight and wearing a white shirt. His trousers were black though; he had his limits._

_A wrapped bouquet of red roses were lying on his coffee table and he turned his glare on them. The sight of him carrying red roses would either cause Mai to blush furiously or to giggle uncontrollably, he was praying for the first._

_A glance at his watch told him that he was going to be late unless left now so he blindly grabbed the roses and left his apartment to pick up Mai for their date._

_Mai was waiting on the curb when he pulled up outside her apartment block. She was dressed in a blue woollen coat and a scarf and a pair of woolly gloves that he had given her for her birthday._

_"I can't believe you managed to get reservations for that restaurant," she said excitedly once she had sat down in the passenger seat. "Ayako told me you have to book at least three months in advance and even then you have to have good connections."_

_"I have_ very  _good connections," he corrected and scrambled for a way to give Mai the roses and ring without it looking overly romantic. He soon found it. "Mai, the wing mirrors are too dirty to drive with, go and get the cloth out of the trunk."_

_Rather understandably, his girlfriend narrowed her eyes at him and reluctantly got out the car and opened the trunk. He was sure he would be forgiven for his rudeness when she found what was in there. Mai was always lecturing him about his manners._

_He heard a gasp and knew that she had seen the roses and would hopefully find the ring box. Moments later Mai got back in, carrying the ring and roses and regarded him silently with an unreadable look on her face._

_He took the ring box from her. "Do you like the ring? I spent hours choosing one for you."_

_There was no reply from his fiancé._

_"Mai...?"_

_She raised her eyebrows. "Is this a marriage proposal?"_

_Naru twitched. His hastily formulated plan had a flaw- it wasn't actually clear that he was proposing to her. He needed to rectify that. He plucked out the ring from its box and carefully slid it onto the appropriate finger and admired how it looked._

_"Your finger looks best with it on," he complimented. "So you had better not lose it and I will be adding another one to it soon."_

_He watched her face nervously. It should now be evident that he was proposing to her. For a few seconds Mai was quiet and then she burst out laughing._

_"Everyone guessed wrong! Even Lin-san couldn't predict how you would propose."_

_Naru's mind cast itself back to a few weeks ago when he had seen all of his employees and Madoka sitting around a table and noting down sums of money on a piece of paper and he had heard the words "bet" and "proposal"._

_"Do you mean to say that there was a bet on how I was going to propose?" he groused._

_"I win ¥50,000 then because everyone got it wrong!" Mai smiled. "But I did think that Yasuhara was going to win."_

_Naru groaned. Knowing Yasuhara it was going to be perverted in some manner._

_"What was his prediction?"_

_"You were going to throw the ring at me casually and tell me that no one else was going to marry me so I might as well marry you."_

_Naru's eyes shifted tellingly to the right and Mai rolled her eyes._

_"It seems that Yasuhara-san is due a pay cut," he said and changed tack. Talking about his employees when he was trying to propose spoiled the mood. "What is your answer?"_

_"It's yes of course!" she exclaimed and threw her arms around him._

The amnesiac Mai gaped at her employer and former fiancée.

"You proposed to me like that and I didn't mind?"

If Naru proposed to her like that now she would have not been impressed. It didn't sound particularly romantic. Then again it was Naru...

"You mellowed out over the years and did not mind it too much when I did supposedly romantic things in an unromantic way," he explained, looking distant. "That is what confirmed the fact that you are for me; anyone else would have dumped me very quickly."

The atmosphere in the room turned uncomfortable for Mai and she yawned loudly and deliberately looked at the clock.

"It's 4 in the morning, I'm going to bed. Bye, Naru," she said and left the room hastily.

She was not the person that Naru loved. She was the 17 year old Mai Taniyama who was still adjusting to her abilities, not the older Mai who was more skilled and got along better with him. She was so wrapped in her thoughts that she didn't notice that someone had followed her until a hand grasped her arm.

She jumped and whirled around to see Naru standing behind her, his skin looking particularly white in the moonlight coming in from the window.

"Mai, I didn't tell you this because you've had a lot to take in today, but..." he paused. "I love you."

Her eyes widened and she was about to protest when Naru placed a finger over her lips.

"Before you say that the one I love is not you, listen. I have loved you for a lot longer than you think, I just kept quiet because I thought the one you liked was Gene. I just wanted to tell you that and I don't need an answer from you."

With that he removed his finger and walked away.

"Naru!" she called after him once she had recovered her breath.

He turned. "Mai."

"Did you love me when I confessed to you?"

"I only realised it after I left for England. Why do you think that I returned so quickly?" he asked with a small smile.

"You told me it was because Japan has more spiritual activity," she said sharply.

"That too. Good night, Mai."

Mai remained frozen on the spot until he rounded the corner of the hallway and she rubbed her eyes. Naru really had changed since they had first me. He had said phrases that she would have never imagined him saying like "I love you".

Like a robot she returned to her bedroom and got into her futon. It had been a long day and maybe in the morning she would be able to process it better.


	10. Date

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 10:**

The group arrived back at the SPR office hours later with everyone only having had a few hours sleep. Unexpectedly Naru gave everyone the day off, citing the fact that Yasuhara became even more annoying when he was sleep deprived. Yasuhara immediately left and was soon followed by John and Lin, who judging by the dark circles under their eyes, were keen to catch up on sleep, leaving only Mai and Naru in the office.

Mai was snuggled up on one of the sofas and was close to falling asleep again when Naru tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mai, if you want to sleep comfortably, go home. If you don't want to sleep you can go out with me today," Naru offered.

She opened one eye to see him standing over her. "Will it be like a date?"

Naru seemed to think hard for a moment before answering. "If that is what you want it to be, then yes."

The amnesiac slowly sat up. "Where it will be?"

"Where we had our first date."

Those words were very enticing to Mai and she stood up instantly. Reliving her first date might unearth some memories now that she was learning more about her relationship with Naru which seemed to be a key part in all her years of missing memories. To her surprise Naru passed her a camera and told her to take photos whenever she felt like it as it would help her.

"This was where our first date was!?" Mai gasped. "In the woods?"

She looked around nervously for the trees were very tall and foreboding, casting an ominous shadow. If a bat came flying out at that moment she would have not been surprised as the atmosphere was befitting of a horror movie. Naru did not look fazed, only amused.

"To be fair, you did not know it was a date. You were under the impression it was for a case," he scoffed. "Like it would only be the two of us on a case in a location like this."

Mai glared at him, understanding her younger self's reaction implicatively.

"A forest as gloomy as this does not give a romantic vibe, Naru. Of course I would have thought it was a case. Why did you choose it?"

Now Naru was the one to look nervous. "I thought it would bring us closer together. You always cling onto me when it gets dark and scary and I don't entirely mind..."

Mai's eyes gradually widened. Naru was admitting that he liked it when she grabbed hold of him in the dark and had deliberately chosen a location so terrifying that she would get close to him. The past few days had contained a lot of surprises and she still could not get her head around the revelation that Naru had loved/still loved her and she had spent most of her early morning waking hours staring at the ceiling blankly. She had avoided dwelling on it whilst she was around others so no one would notice that she was troubled, but now it was just her and Naru.

The main things stopping her from reciprocating after hearing his confession were her amnesia and the niggling feeling that she had not been privy to everything that had happened two years ago.

Naru offered her his hand and she hesitantly took it, noting the familiarity as she did so.

"It's going to be dark. Hold my hand, just for safety though," he said.

Mai experienced a sudden feeling of déjà vu. The face of a younger Naru aligned with the current one as she stared at him.

"Did you say that last time?" she asked unsurely.

Naru looked watchful. "Yes. It seems as if you are slowly recovering your memories."

Her heart soared. She was beginning to recall events and if this kept up she would not be an amnesiac anymore. It was not enjoyable having amnesia, she constantly felt like she was wading through a marsh as her surroundings and relationships with people had changed a lot and she often felt lost by all the changes.

"Thank you Naru for helping," she replied with a smile and this time she did spot the sad expression on her former fiancée's face and picked him up on it. "Is is bad for me to recover my memories?"

He shook his head and his face turned unreadable. Without speaking he led the way into the forest. A few metres into the densely packed trees, Mai noticed that the sunlight had completely disappeared and she tightened her grip on his hand.

"This forest has rumours of a ghost and I did tell you that before we went it so you would not think too much of me taking you out and I was also interested to see if the rumours were true. This forest used to be a popular site for suicides," he told her. "Don't worry about not being able to see-"

"-just keep hold of my hand and in any case your animal instincts should take care of you," Mai finished his sentence, the words coming to her naturally.

She could hear the surprise in Naru's voice when he answered. "I brought a torch so you don't trip up and gain another head injury. You were right though, that is what I said last time."

There was a moment of silence between them and Mai was the one to change the subject. Naru's awkwardness was something she would address at a later point. For now she had to focus on regaining her memories.

"Were there any spirits here to exorcise?"

She heard Naru sigh.

"No, but ghostly noises were provided courtesy of Yasuhara and Bou-san."

This gave Mai a mental image of the monk and Yasuhara hiding behind trees and doing their best impression of ghostly noises. Considering the number of cases they had all been on, they had plenty of inspiration to draw on. However she could not see Naru enlisting their services to give their date atmosphere.

Naru seemed to be thinking along the same lines for he explained before she had a chance to open her mouth.

"Before you ask, I did not get them to help me. They got wind of my plan to ask you out- I still think it was Lin who told them and they decided to help. Just so you know, I was planning to tell you the truth when we got here, but the noises scared you so much that you would not let go of me... and I saw no reason to spoil the atmosphere."

Hidden by the poor light, she shot Naru a glare. Who knew that a 21 year old Naru would be so devious? He seemed to sense her glare and hastily changed tack by switching his torch on and gently pulling her along the path, warning her when there were tree roots and helping her across puddles. He stopped in a clearing and shone the light up a slope at a group of trees.

"Those two idiots were hiding over there," he pointed. "Yasuhara-san did an admirable ghostly wail causing you to hug me tightly."

* * *

_The only thing preventing her from fleeing the forest was Naru's hold on her hand. It seemed strange that there was only two of them in a place said to be inhabited by a spirit and Naru never went anywhere like this without a van full of equipment. That said, she was there now and she would not wimp out. She just wished that Naru had brought some source of light. It was unlike him not to be prepared._

_A mournful wail stopped them in their tracks and Mai clutched at Naru. Another wail had her throwing her arms around him and hugging him as tightly as a limpet._

_"What was that!?" she hissed as close as she could to his ear._

_"I don't quite know," he whispered back sounding more puzzled than scared._

_A minute passed and the psychic was about to let go when the wail returned and she clung onto him even harder._

_"I'm sorry," she murmured. "It's scary."_

_Naru's reply was unlike his usual responses to anything she said._

_"It's fine," he answered, sounding out of breath for some reason._

_Mai attempted to look up at his face before remembering it was too dark. Last week, on their most recent case, Naru had rescued her from the spirit that had been about to attack her, had told her that she should always stay close to him so he could protect her and had kissed her for a long time and then he hadn't done anything since then. Today he had asked her to go with him to investigate a possible haunting which was not a date. Unless it was a date by Naru standards?_

_The wailing stopped and she relaxed briefly before the sound of a twig cracking tensed her up._

_"It's okay, Mai. I think that whatever it was has moved on now," Naru reassured her in an amused tone for some reason. "...We can stay here if you want to."_

_"Just give me a minute to calm down."_

_Once Mai's heartbeat had slowed down to its normal rate she let go of Naru, but kept hold of his hand. There was no way she was going to let go of it now that she knew something was hiding in the darkness._

_Further into the forest a wailing sound could be heard again with this one being lower in pitch suggesting that there were at least two spirits roaming the woods. She grabbed onto Naru's body and held on for dear life. She was not usually this scared of ghosts, but the forest was pitch black and she could not see anything to aim the Nine Cuts at._

_Naru's hand patted her on the head and he bent down to whisper in her ear._

_"Would you like me to get rid of them? It will be quite easy and does not require PK."_

_"Yes."_

_She felt him straighten up and she experienced another surprise. Instead of calling out something that an exorcist would say, he simply loudly said,_

_"We don't want you here. Leave or else you might find you have a pay cut when you get your next paycheque."_

_Ghosts did not get paid with cheques to Mai's knowledge. Neither could they crack twigs and then she remember seeing a familiar car in the car park outside._

_"Bou-san?"_

_"It's Bou-san and some other idiot," Naru said calmly. "I supposed I should be thankful to them."_

_Mai realised that now that there was no danger should not be clutching at Naru so she released him and felt herself being pulled back into his arms._

_"Naru?"_

_He kissed the top of her head. "Whilst I was interested to see if there was a spirit, it was not my main objective. I wanted to spend some time alone with you."_

_Mai stared wide eyed at him even though she could not see him._

_"Is this supposed to be a date?"_

_"Perhaps."_

_"Naru!"_

_Her next shout was cut off by Naru's mouth covering hers and she found herself unable to talk properly for the next few minutes._

* * *

The amnesiac Mai blinked, returning to the present. It seemed that another memory, this one longer and more detailed, had returned. She grinned, she was so close to getting her memory back.


	11. Yume no Hajima

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 11:**

"Where was our second date?" Mai asked interestedly on the way home in Naru's car. She didn't think that a trip to a gloomy forest could be topped for the worst places to take your girlfriend.

"I took you to your hometown and we visited your parents' grave. As I had the intention of wanting to spend my life with you, I thought I would pay my respects."

Mai was surprised. It was unlike Naru to be that thoughtful and she could not quite imagine Naru bowing in front of her parents' grave and professing to desire to spend the rest of his life with her. She wondered if he had done the same for her middle school teacher, Haruka Ozawa who she had lived with for a while.

"I also met Ozawa-san," Naru added, appearing to be on the same tack as her. "She made me promise to treat you kindly and I broke that promise in the end."

His words caused an abrupt halt in the conversation and neither spoke again until he pulled up outside her apartment block and opened her door for her.

"I expect you to come into work tomorrow as usual," he informed her seriously and changed to a lighter subject. "I hope you enjoyed today."

"It was very strange, but I felt safe with you," she answered honestly, deliberately neglecting to mention that she had regained a solid memory of their first date. Something was telling her to keep it quiet and her animal instincts had not let her down before. "Thank you, Naru."

He gave her one of his most genuine smiles and drove off leaving her to find something else to do to occupy herself on her unexpected day off. After the date in the forest Naru had taken her out for lunch in Shibuya to the same restaurant again and she had experienced another feeling of déjà vu again and Naru had told her that that was what they had done on their first date.

She took her coat off and went to check the TV guide. She was still tired from a sleepless night and did not feel like doing anything psychically demanding. Mai was disappointed to find that there was nothing on but daytime talk shows and children's programmes.

She remembered that she had not contacted Ozawa-sensei yet, mainly because she had not found in her contact list on her mobile phone. Instead Mai picked up the landline phone in her apartment and found her former teacher's number there instead. It was probably there because it was expensive to call a landline from a mobile phone and she had always been one to save money.

Haruka picked up after five rings. "Is that you, Mai-chan?"

"Yes, Ozawa-sensei. It's Mai. How have you been?"

As she spoke, the amnesiac recalled Naru's line about Haruka making him promise to take care of her meaning that he would not have been able to persuade her to lie like he had done for Keiko. Therefore her former teacher would be able to confirm if Naru had been telling the truth about what happened two years ago.

"I'm doing well, Mai-chan. Is there anything important that you would like to say to me or did you just call to talk?" Haruka asked.

"I have a question. It's very important."

"I thought so, I could hear it in your voice," she sighed. "You sound worried."

"I have amnesia. I can't remember anything past the age of 17."

An intake of breath could be heard over the line and Mai continued on.

"I've been like this for over a week. Naru offered me my old job back and no one ever told me that we were engaged. I was tired of not knowing so I astral projected and witnessed a few memories and realised I had dated Naru. He eventually explained to me why we split up, but something feels wrong."

"What did he say?" Haruka enquired sharply.

Mai related what she had been told. "We were on a case two years ago. I jumped in front of Naru and got hit. I needed surgery and Naru told me to apologise and I wouldn't until he did and he never did."

Her former teacher's response confirmed all of Mai's half formed suspicions.

"Mai-chan...I'm afraid to say that he left something major out of his explanation. I can understand why he did... but keeping you in the dark cannot be an option for much longer."

Mai bit her lip. This was it. She was finally going to find out the truth and judging by everyone's refusal to tell her it was going to be upsetting.

"I want to know. How am I supposed to get my memory back if no one tells me the truth!?" she declared, fully aware that once she heard it there was no going back unless she had another accident and got amnesia again.

"Mai-chan... At the time of the case you were several weeks pregnant."

Mai barely managed to prevent the phone from slipping from her grasp. She had been pregnant two years ago!? She was beginning to understand all the secrecy around her. If she had been pregnant then...

"The attack caused you to have a miscarriage."

Mai balled her hand into a fist. She had lost a child... Naru's words from the hospital took on a new meaning.

"You never told Davis-san about your pregnancy and he only found out at the hospital which may account for his harsh behaviour to you at the time," Haruka carried on.

 _"We never had any free time together and you kept trying to tell me something and I was always too busy to listen.."_ Mai's mind automatically supplied the appropriate memory.

"Ozawa-sensei, I need some time alone," she said quietly and hung up, letting the phone drop from her hand.

Two years ago, when she was 21 she had been engaged to Naru and she had become pregnant. She had lost the child by jumping in front of Naru who had been trying to save her. He had refused to apologise for blaming her and she had refused to apologise until he did.

The psychic winced. Her head was beginning to spin from all the sudden revelations. She sat down on the floor to steady herself. Naru had apologised yesterday which meant she needed to apologise now and then they could be together, but she did not feel anything for him. He had rejected her eight years ago which had effectively placed a dam in her feelings for him.

As if to contradict her an image of Naru hugging her came to mind followed by one of him putting a ring on her finger and another one of him kissing her. She took a deep breath as all of her memories came back in full force.

_"I will only say "thank you" when it's you, Mai..."_

_"Your finger looks best with it on..."_

_"You can't call me a narcissist if I am in love with you..."_

A very solid and appropriate memory came back to her. It was what happened in the hospital two years ago.

_She opened her eyes, still sleepy from the anaesthetic and Naru's face came into her sightline. As her vision cleared she absentmindedly absorbed all of the details. His usually neatly arranged hair was a mess and his face was sickly pale. Her eyes moved downwards. His dark blue shirt was untucked and covered in blood. Whose blood was it?_

_It was her blood, she realised as she recognised her surroundings to for what they were. Of course it was her blood, she was the one lying in the hospital bed._

_"...Naru," she moaned, her mouth dry like sandpaper._

_"Mai!" he exclaimed and moved closer. "You're awake!"_

_"What happened?" she slurred her words sleepily._

_"The spirit slashed at you and your stomach was covered in lacerations. You have just had surgery to stitch them up and replace your lost blood. It was serious surgery so don't even think about sitting up."_

_"...Okay."_

_Mai thought back to the case as she lay there. The spirit had violently attacked several female guests at a ryokan and SPR had been called in. The investigation had not been easy and Naru had been constantly busy so she had been unable to tell him that... she was pregnant._

_"The baby!" she shouted out as soon as she realised. "What happened to it!?"_

_As she spoke her hands moved unconsciously to her stomach which was covered in bandages._

_Naru's eyes tightened. "You had a miscarriage due to the attack. Was that what you were trying to tell me earlier?"_

_Mai felt a tear roll down her cheek, leaving a cold trail behind._

_"I only found a few days ago. I was complaining to Ayako about feeling constantly tired and throwing up in the morning and she gave me a test," she explained haltingly as the tears would not stop falling._

_A tissue was handed to her by a blank faced Naru and she wiped her tears gratefully before waiting for his response. She knew him well enough to know that a poker faced Naru was not a good sign._

_His response was to glare at her and launch a tirade at her._

_"If you knew you were pregnant, why did you jump in front of me!?" he demanded. "You saw the photos of the victims, you knew what the spirit was going to do!"_

_"But you were going to use your PK and I don't want to see you get resuscitated again," she protested._

_Her fiancé sighed heavily. "I had to watch you lose consciousness from blood loss, I travelled in the ambulance, I waited outside the operating theatre and only after you came out did I find out that you were pregnant. I think that it was much worse for me to see that."_

_Mai lowered her eyes, she could not meet Naru's eyes. He was right._

_"I wasn't thinking properly," she muttered inaudibly._

_Naturally Naru heard and made a scathing reply. "That was obvious. After so many other dangerous encounters with angry ghosts, you still have not learnt your lesson. I have employed you for six years and you still don't think properly in situations like that."_

_He paused and gave her a searching look. "There cannot be a repeat of this. You cannot work for me again until you apologise and promise to learn from this. It is your fault."_

_Mai sat up immediately causing her vision to swim and Naru's hands pushed her back down gently contrasting his tone._

_"It isn't my fault that the ghost attacked me!" she griped. "You're being a idiotic narcissist again, Naru! I'm not going to say sorry until you stop punishing me for something that isn't my fault."_

_She watched as Naru turned away, picked up his coat and walked out of her room. He stopped at the door to have one last go at her._

_"It looks like we won't be seeing each other for a while, Taniyama-san. Come back to SPR again when you want to apologise."_

_With that he left, closing the door behind him._

The present Mai Taniyama blinked and focused on her surroundings. It was her apartment which was strange as she had been on her way to work. Hadn't she been hit by a taxi? That was right, she had ended up in hospital and Bou-san had come to take her home and had noticed her amnesia.

Her returned memory of what she had been doing before the accident along with the other returned ones only meant one thing. She no longer had amnesia. She was the 23 year old Mai Taniyama again. The office lady with an ex-fiancé.

Naru.

The narcissist had clearly not wanted her to recall that memory of their conversation at the hospital because he knew he had been in the wrong. However she had been wrong too.

She picked up the phone and dialled a number that was not in the contact list.

"Mai?" asked the person who picked up.

"Hello Naru."

"I deduce that you must have your memory back as you are the only person that uses this number," he said tonelessly.

"Correct. I have something to say to you."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The revelation that Mai was pregnant probably isn't too surprising as it wasn't really hidden. I threw subtle foreshadowing out the window for this one.


	12. Family Photo

**Finding You:**

**Chapter 12:**

"What is it?" her former fiancé enquired after a few seconds of silence.

Mai took a deep breath. If she hesitated now she was going to lose her determination. She had not gone through losing her memory for nothing to ever change and for the status quo to remain.

"Can I meet you?"

"If you like." She could hear the surprise in his voice.

"I will come over to your apartment now," she said and put the phone down before he could protest.

She pulled her coat back on and as an afterthought, she dug through her desk and picked out a small red velvet case that had been hidden underneath an untidy stack of utility bills. Although she had returned the photos and his clothes, she had kept the engagement ring and stashed it away somewhere until Naru apologised. Now that time had come. She slipped the box into her pocket and left her apartment.

The door was opened by a stone faced Naru who let her in silently.

Mai sat herself down on the sofa and looked around his living room which consisted of two sofas and an armchair and a whole wall of bookshelves filled with neat rows of scientific books. Like the SPR office, it had not changed in the basics, the small details were different. The photos of them together were missing.

"Earl Grey or Darjeeling?" the scientist called from the kitchen like he always used to.

"Darjeeling," she requested.

Shortly he returned with a teapot, milk jug and one teacup on a tray which he placed down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Aren't you going to have any?" she questioned.

"You know full well that I can only drink tea if you make it," he stated simply as he poured the tea into the cup and added a dash of milk before handing it to her and sitting down opposite her.

"I saw Lin buying you tea from a cafe when I met him after the accident."

"I have sampled from all of the teashops and cafes in the vicinity of the office," Naru explained and gracefully crossed one leg over the other. "How did you get your memory back? I had only just got back here when you called so it could not have been astral projection."

Mai smiled. "Ozawa-sensei. I would have liked to see you trying to persuade her to lie to me like you did to Keiko."

Naru's face seemed to blanch slightly. "Keiko-san and Michiru-san have not known you for as long as Ozawa-san and she is more of a mother to you and not a friend. They were easy to persuade as they agreed it was for your benefit."

Mai took a sip of tea and savoured the familiar taste, bringing back memories of their relationship. She had made him green tea and he made her milk tea whenever she came over and later when they had lived together.

"Why did you appear to help me with my amnesia and at other times, be an obstruction?" she enquired. Haruka's explanation had been the breaking the point, nevertheless the earlier cracks in her amnesia had been caused by Naru.

"I liked having you close to me again, however I knew that the amnesia was not comfortable for you to live with so I started to help you subtly with the photos. Once you found out about our relationship I had to tell you more significant facts that were likely to cause you to regain some memories. What else could I do? It would not be fair to you to never get your memory back."

Mai narrowed her eyes at him. "You did not tell me about my miscarriage."

Her words caused Naru to flinch. "I could not bring myself to; it would cause you pain again and I did not want to see that. How are you feeling about it?"

The former amnesiac frowned and thought back to two years ago. Once she had been discharged from hospital, she had applied for other jobs and disposed of everything that reminded her of Naru aside from the ring which she had hidden from view. After a while she had begun to forget about him and all of her friends were considerate enough to never mention him.

"It was hard at first, but eventually I got over it. I was too young to be a mother and you were not exactly father material, although you were a lot better than you were when I first met you."

There was a pause in the conversation as Mai sipped her tea thoughtfully and Naru mulled over her words. The silence was broken by him asking:

"What about now? Would you say that I am father material?"

She jumped in her seat, unsure if she had heard correctly. She shot him a questioning look. Naru adjusted a crease in his trousers awkwardly before continuing.

"What I am asking is: can we start over again?"

This was not what Mai had been expecting. She was expecting to have to apologise for what happened two years ago straight away and for Naru to act coldly towards her. Not that she didn't want him to ask that, it was just a surprise. He really had become more considerate.

"Yes, I would," she replied with a bright smile which was outdone by Naru's brilliant smile which showed his dimples.

"Thank you, Mai."

Following that their conversation stopped and they stared awkwardly at each other, each waiting for the other to make a move. Considering that she was the one who still had an apology to make, Mai made the first move.

"I'm sorry about getting injured two years ago and losing the baby. I was not thinking straight, I just wanted to protect you. Can I come back to work now?" she requested nervously. "I won't act rashly anymore. I behaved on the last case."

Naru reached out and lightly touched her cheek.

"For two years I waited for you to come back to the office. I lost three capable employees and my fiancée for my behaviour two years ago and I regret it," he said sadly. "It is certainly true that you behaved yourself, although I attributed it to you being occupied with other matters."

Mai pouted, knowing that Naru found it endearing. Or that was Yasuhara had told her.

"No, I trusted that you had complete control of the situation and I stayed where I was because of that," she argued back.

Her boss flashed her another heart stopping smile. "Well, you can come back again."

"It's a deal."

Now satisfied that she had been forgiven, Mai got up and sat on Naru's lap. She felt him squirm a little underneath her at the unexpected action, but he relaxed and placed his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, perfectly content and then Naru lifted his head to say a familiar line with an addition.

"Mai, tea. Please."

Automatically, schooled by numerous years of responding to this order, Mai stood up and walked to the kitchen to make tea. As she waited for the kettle to boil she had a snoop around the cupboards, ensuring to close the doors quietly so Naru would not hear her. In the end she found an impressive amount of ramen and teabags.

"What is it that you like so much about my tea? I have made tea for lots of people since SPR and they all say it's good, but not brilliant," she asked interestedly.

Naru looked serious again. "It took me a while to work it out. I only realised it when I left Japan. You are right, it is not the tea- it is the sight of you that makes me happy and makes the tea taste nicer."

Mai fought back a blush and failed. She saw Naru smirking at her, he had always enjoyed making her blush.

"Naru, why is there so much instant food in your kitchen? It's not healthy," she reprimanded him.

The former narcissist placed his teacup back down on the coffee table and ran a hand through his hair dramatically causing Mai to goggle.

"Well, you see, I used to have a girlfriend that I lived with and she used to cook for me. When we broke up, I missed her food and when we get back together I would like to live with her again to she can cook for me again."

The psychic resisted the temptation to flick her hair in return and distracted him by producing her engagement out of her pocket. Naru's eyes followed her movements carefully as she placed it on her appropriate finger.

"... I wasn't sure if you still had it," he whispered.

"Yasuhara recognised it when I showed everyone and told me how much it cost so there was no way I was going to throw it away after hearing how many zeros there were," she explained with a smile. "That may be true, but I also maintained a hope that time would heal the rift between us."

"All it took was a case of amnesia," he said quietly. "Are you going to stay over tonight?"

Mai blushed again and poked him in the shoulder.

"We have only just made up, Naru. I will cook you dinner though."

* * *

The SPR employees' reactions were varied to say the least when Naru and Mai arrived at the office together with Mai wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing the day before. Lin gave them a once over and silently returned to his office. John flushed and Masako arched an eyebrow. As expected Yasuhara had the most vocal reaction.

"I haven't seen you two do the walk of shame of a couple of years," he winked suggestively."How's the amnesia, Mai? You know it's the body that remembers things the best-"

"That reminds me, I have not given you a pay cut for a couple of years, Yasuhara-san. Possibly because you stopped making comments like this," Naru warned and swanned past his employees.

Yasuhara closed his mouth instantly and waited until Naru had closed his office door before opening it again.

"Let's have a party to celebrate Mai's recovery!"

Masako lifted her sleeve to her mouth and spoke from behind it. "I suppose we could."

Yasuhara clapped her on the back. "That's the spirit. John?"

The priest cast a nervous glance at Naru's office door. "As long it does not disturb Davis-san."

Mai dismissed that worry with a wave. "If we have a tea party instead there won't be too much noise. I will make the tea. Yasuhara, what snacks are hidden in your desk?"

They all jumped in unison when they heard a door open and Mai turned to see Naru staring at them.

"How many times must I sat that this office is not a cafe?" he griped and much to everyone's surprise he sat down next to John instead of retreating to his sanctum. "Mai, I thought you were going to make tea."

She tore her eyes off him and walked off to the kitchen. She had assumed that there would be no more surprises now that she had recovered from her amnesia. Clearly that was not the case with Naru.

Another surprise awaited her when she returned with the tea. Yasuhara was setting out boxes of Pocky and Hello Panda and Naru was putting his phone back in his pocket.

"I have invited Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san. It seems that the office will be closed yet again," he sighed and Mai noted it was not an exasperated sigh. "I need to re-employ them. It a lot easier to exorcise when Bou-san is around."

Happily Mai threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Her family were back together again. She did not protest when Naru pulled her closer so their foreheads were touching and kissed her on the lips in front of everyone else.

"Ew," was Yasuhara's comment as all of the other employees decided to temporarily vacate the seating area.

Naru's eyes flicked up to check they were gone before he began probing her mouth with his tongue, keen to make up for lost time. His hands twisted in her hair, keeping her close to him. The pair eventually parted to breathe and Mai's face was the same colour as a stop sign.

Her boyfriend tweaked her cheek. "You're blushing. I don't quite know how you still manage it, we have done much worse."

Mai glared at him and was about to retort when a ponytailed monk burst in followed by a priestess.

"Jou-chan!" he wailed, reminding Mai of when she woke up in hospital. "What is this about you getting back together with Naru-bou?"

Ayako pushed him out the way and gave the brunette a searching look. "Your lips are swollen. What were you doing just now?"

Naru smirked at the pair before sobering. "We have both realised our mistakes now and a rift like this will never happen again."

Bou-san waved his fist. "If it ever does, I don't care if your name is Oliver Davis, I'll-"

Ayako cut him off abruptly much to Mai's relief. "Where's the party?"

Later on when the celebrating had calmed down and everyone was happy with Naru and Mai's reconciliation, Mai took the camera Naru had lent her and took a photo of her family who were finally together again. She had missed seeing them together over the years, but what made her the most happy was being back at Naru's side and hopefully this time it would be forever.

**The End**

* * *


End file.
